^\^. 


BY    ALFRED    AYRES. 


Some  Ill-used  Words. 

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SOME  ILL-USED  WORDS 


BY 


ALFRED   AYRES 

AUTHOR    OF 

THE  ORTHOiiPIST,  THE  VERBALIST,   ACTING  AND  ACTORS, 

THE   MENTOR,    THE    ESSENTIALS    OF    ELOCUTION,    ETC. 


As  there  is  never  but  one  best  way,  so  there  is  never  but  one  best  word 


NEW    YORK 
n.    APPLHTON     AND    COMPANY 

1901 


Copyright,  1901, 
Bv  D.   APPLETON   AND   COMPANY. 


Every  writer  should  aim  to  preserve  the 
individuality  of  the  words  he  uses;  he  shoidd 
not  allow  any  word  to  trench  on  the  domain 
of  any  other  word.  This  he  shoidd  do  in  the 
interest  of  clearness;  in  this  way  only  can  he 
avoid  ambiguity.  The  so-called  "  new  mean- 
ings" are  the  product  either  of  a  restricted 
vocabidary  or  of  a  lack  of  painstaking. 

Familiarity  with  the  examples  here  gath- 
ered should  do  something,  it  would  seem, 
toward  mending  the  ways  of  the  careless. 


1001 495i 


PREFACE 


This  book  is  levelled,  specially,  at  some 
half  dozen  errors  that  are  made  by  wellnigh 
every  one  that  uses  the  English  language. 

Who,  for  example,  does  not  misuse  the 
auxiliary  verbs,  and  the  words  anticipate, 
anxious,  financial,  and  hurry;  and  who  does 
not  over-use  the  words  former  and  latter"^ 
Then  who  does  not  use  a  certain  ponderous 
locution  in  which  a  noun  is  made  to  do 
duty  as  a  verb?  And  then  there  are  not 
a  few  that  persist  in  using  that  repulsive 
construction  in  which  there  are  two  nomi- 
natives and  only  one  verb? 

Something  about  these  words  and 
phrases,  and  some  little  besides,  is  what 
herein  will  be  found. 

A.  A. 

New  Yov.k,  January,  igoi. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

The  auxiliaries 

9 

The  noun  construction 

30 

The  New  York  Sun's  special  abhorrenci 

58 

Former  and  latter        .... 

66 

The  antecedent  construction    . 

77 

Anticipate 

94 

Errors  in  tense 

107 

Anxious    . 

123 

Financial 

133 

Hurry 

139 

The  possessive 

144 

Capable— susceptible 

152 

Proposition — proposal 

157 

Previous  to     . 

163 

Generally 

i6g 

Appreciate 

174 

Diction     . 

178 

None. 

181 

Individual 

.     185 

In  respect  of  . 

i8q 

Feels  badly    . 

192 

S0.)/£   ILL-USED   WORDS 


Of  the  name  of 

Commence 

.•/  or  as,  which  ? 

Miscellaneous 

Why    use     tha  t   to    introduce    restrictive 
clauses  ? 


PAGE 

I9S 
200 
202 

227 


SOME  ILL-USED  WORDS 


THE  AUXILL^RIES 

The  misuse  of  the  auxiliary  verbs  is 
wellnigh  universal. 

The  errors  are  made  in  using  zvill  for 
shall  and  would  for  should. 

The  auxiliaries  are  most  misused  in  in- 
direct discourse;  there,  they  are  more  fre- 
quently used  incorrectly  than  correctly. 
Properly,  thus:  ''  He  said  he  should  be  glad 
to  see  you."  "  They  think  they  shall  be 
here  to-morrow."  "  He  thinks  he  shall 
soon  be  well."  "  They  are  confident  they 
shall  get  it."  We  see  zvill  more  frequently 
in  sentences  like  these  than  sJiall. 

In  The  Verbalist,  page  252,  the  auxil- 
iaries are  treated  with  tolerable  fulness. 

The  book  was  just  then  published  and  was 
very    badly    printed.      When    I    got    through    I 

9 


,0  SOME  ILL-VSED    WORDS 

tlioui^lu    1    would    [slioulilj    never    sec    again. — 
Cliiirl iS  A.  Ihiim. 

Before  leaving^  City  Hall  the  chief  marshal 
said  he  wotilii  |  shonhlj  write  the  Mayor  a  letter 
explaining  the  whole  matter. 


Governor  Roosevelt  said  that  he  zvoiild 
[should]  be  very  glad  to  have  the  honor  of  shak- 
ing hands  with  the  members  of  the  congrega- 
tion. 


If  that  were  all  that  he  meant  he  would  not 
be  supporting  it,  and  I  zvould  [should]  not  be 
taking  the  trouble  to  oppose  it.  If  everything 
in  the  world  be  increased  lo  per  cent  in  value, 
why  we  would  [should]  pay  lo  per  cent  in  ad- 
dition for  what  we  wotdd  [should]  buy  and  we 
zvould  [should]  get  lo  per  cent  more  for  w-hat 
we  would  [should]  sell,  and  we  zvould  [should] 
be  exactly  in  the  same  place  we  occupied  [were 
in]  before. — Bourke  Cockran  as  reported  in  the 
New  York  Sun. 

Chairman  Hanna  of  the  National  Republican 
Committee  said  he  woidd  [should]  have  nothing 
to  add  to  the  statement  issued  last  night. 


When  I  come  back  to  New  York  City,  after 
my  trip  through  the  State,  I  will  [shall]  be  able 


THE   A  UXILIARIES  \  i 

to  judge  better  what  the  New  York  vote  will  be. 
The  Democratic  leaders  of  this  State  have  as- 
sured me  that  I  zvill  [shall]  carry  New  York  by 
a  comfortable  majority. 


The  morning  after  this  dinner  Minister  Tay- 
lor sent  to  the  Spanish  Foreign  Office  a  peremp- 
tory notification  that  unless  the  communication  to 
the  Ambassadors  was  instantly  withdrawn  he 
would  [should]  demand  his  passports  and  return 
to  Washington. — New  York  Sun. 


If  he  were  [should  be]  elected  we  would 
[should]  have  a  President  with  all  a  President's 
influence  in  the  Senate  and  in  the  House,  deter- 
mined by  every  means  in  his  power  to  throw  the 
exchanges  of  the  country  into  chaos. 


Archbishop  Cranmer,  the  first  primate  of  the 
English  Church,  said  in  his  Catechism :  "  If  we 
should  have  heathen  parents  and  die  without  bap- 
tism, we  would  [should]  be  damned  everlast- 
ingly."   

"Let  me  see,"  said  Mrs.  Dobley,  reflectively; 
"  I  have  promised  to  give  up  sugar,  sweets  and 
pastries  of  all  sorts,  cream,  jellies — really  every- 
thing I  like  best.  It's  dreadful,  isn't  it?  We  zvill 
[shall]  not  be  so  happy,  but  we  will  [shall]  grow 
thin." 


12  SO.UF.    II.I.-rSKD    irOA'PS 

\\\-  Ti'i//  |sliall]  sweep  the  coiuitry  from  one 
end  to  the  other  aiui  the  Repuhlicans  will  not  be 
able  to  carry  eight  States  in  the  Union. — John  P. 
Altgcld.  

She  would  not  say  to-night  whether  she  would 
[should]  or  -u'oiiUi  [should]  not  comply  with  the 
provisions  of  the  will.  The  Sister  Superior 
thought  Miss  Jewell  would  enter  the  sisterhood 
regardless  of  family  opposition. 


'■  I  don't  see,  just  at  present,  that  I  will  [shall] 
need  to  resort  to  force  to  keep  me  [myself]  in 
office."  If  this  be  not  the  language  of  revolt,  we 
would  [should]  like  to  know  what  it  is. 


I  believe  it  should  be  allowed  to  carry  out  any 
reasonable  tariff  policy  without  obstruction.  If  it 
brings  prosperity  we  zvill  [shall]  all  be  content. 
If  it  does  not  we  will  [shall]  all  know  that  some 
other  remedy  is  required,  and  by  the  process  of 
elimination  [we]  zi'ill  [shall]  come  down  to  the 
only  radical  cure.  Let  tariff  legislation  be  en- 
acted immediately  and  we  zvill  [shall]  have  a 
chance  to  test  the  sentiments  of  the  country  on 
the  silver  question  alone,  unembarrassed  by  tariff. 
— New  York  Evening  Sun. 


With  this  accomplished  the  Chicago  scientist 
believes  that  he  zvill  [shall]  have  a  fairly  accurate 
idea  of  how  many  years  it  took  the  whole  lime- 
stone stratum  to  accumulate. 


THE   AUXILIARIES  13 

I  assert  that  aggregated  capital  is  the  neces- 
sary and  natural  handmaid  of  advancing  com- 
merce ;  that  we  zuoiild  [should]  never  have 
reached  the  colossal  developed  condition  in  which 
we  find  ourselves  if  the  instrumentalities  of  ag- 
gregated wealth  had  not  aided  it. 


Mr.  Bryan  is  just  as  resolute  and  uncom- 
promising an  advocate  of  free  silver  to-day  as 
[he  was]  in  the  days  immediately  following  his 
defeat  in  1896,  when  he  said  that  if  everybody 
else  abandoned  the  cause  he  would  [should]  be 
found  fighting  for  it  with  his  last  breath. 

Neither  a  promise  nor  determination, 
simply  future  action. 


Chairman  Jones  serves  notice  on  the  support- 
ers of  President  McKinley  that  "  we  have  won 
the  fight,  and,  by  Heaven,  we  will  not  be  de- 
frauded out  of  our  victory  by  the  chicanery  of 
election  judges." 

Determination,  hence  correct. 


President  Eliot's  mind  made  up.  He  says  he 
won't  support  McKinley,  but  doesn't  know  how 
he  will  [shall]  vote. 

He  added  that,  although  he  believed  that  he 
zvould  [should]  carry  his  own  State  by  20,000,  he 
had  been  informed  that  his  plurality  in  Nebraska 
would  be  50,000. 


14 


SOME  ILL- USED   WORDS 


Sonic  three  sunimers  at^o  Chailes  Dudley 
Warner  was  silting  on  llie  balcony  of  a  club  over- 
looking Madison  S(juare  taking  his  afternoon 
coffee;  there  had  been  some  talk  of  the  club 
[club's]  moving  uptown.  Mr.  Warner  said,  in 
his  quiet  way:  "  Ten  years  from  now  they  will  be 
sorry  they  moved  uptown.  I  imll  [shall]  be  sorry, 
too.  Hold  on,  no  I  won't,  for  I  zvill  [shall]  be 
dead.     Yes,  but  I  «'///  [shall]  be  sorry  any  way." 


\\'hen  the  two  men  were  arrested,  Frederick 
B.  House,  their  attorney,  said  that  he  zvould 
[should]  have  no  difficulty  in  getting  bail  for 
them. 

Second,  what  prosperity  we  have  came  in 
spite  of  the  Republican  party.  If  the  Republican 
party  had  had  its  way  we  zvould  [should]  have 
had  no  prosperity. 

He  said  to-day  that  he  luould  [should]  remain 
in  Lincoln  and  devote  his  time  to  magazine  and 
special  writing  and  to  lecturing.  He  said  he  had 
not  the  least  idea  of  retiring  from  politics,  and 
that  whether  as  a  leader  or  [as]  a  private  he 
proposed  to  continue  his  labors  on  [in?]  behalf 
of  Democracy. 

An  engineer  working  for  the  market  may  find 
means  to  make  a  fortune.  Of  course,  in  the  vast 
majority  of  cases  he  does  not,  but  he  always  hopes 
he  will  [shall]. 


THE   AUXILIARIES 


15 


I  have  a  lot  of  very  important  business  to 
attend  to  that  requires  all  my  time  at  present 
and  for  several  weeks  to  come,  and  I  should  be 
obliged  to  neglect  it  if  I  should  go  to  Chicago. 
Besides,  my  presence  at  the  Convention  would 
really  do  no  good.  The  free-silver  people  seem 
to  have  about  everything  their  own  way,  and,  as 
I  shoidd  stand  by  the  resolutions  of  our  State 
Convention  and  vote  for  a  sound-money  platform 
and  sound-money  candidates,  I  shoidd  stand  with 
the  minority  in  a  hopeless  and  embarrassing  posi- 
tion. 

It  would  seem  from  this  paragraph,  that 
the  Bahimore  correspondent  of  the  New- 
York  Sun  knows  how  to  use  his  auxiliaries. 
He's  one  in  a  thousand. 


We  will  [shall]  have  the  finger  of  scorn 
pointed  at  us  by  all  other  nations,  and  justly,  too, 
for  we  will  [shall]  be  dishonest  and  dishonorable. 


Mr.  House  was  asked  if  he  tvonld  [should] 
begin  habeas  corpus  proceedings  to-day  for  his 
clients  and  he  replied : 

"I  don't  think  I  ivill  [shall].  Probably  our 
only  work  to-day  will  be  to  get  the  prisoners  out 
on  bail."  

Young  Vickery  was  placed  hors  du  [de]  com- 
bat.    Mrs.  Vickery  declared  that  she  would  never 


J 6  soMF  /rr-csEP  iroRDS 

!»«.■  driven  hv  a  roostor — so  sallied  forth  to  meet 
her  adversary. 

Determination,  hence  correct. 


\\'e  have  broken  up  his  alibi,  we  ivill  [shall] 
connect  him  with  the  bloody  finger  marks  on  the 
door,  and  we  ivill  [shall]  tell  one  other  thing  that 
will  absolutely  convince  a  jury  of  his  guilt. 


According  to  report  President  Marroquin  has 
decided  not  to  accept  the  Atalanta.  Senor  Isaza 
said  he  zvonld  [should]  not  act  in  this  regard 
until  he  had  received  full  instructions  from  Presi- 
dent Marroquin. 

\\^e  zvould  [should]  simply  take  our  present 
North  Atlantic  fleet  and  drive  them  from  Cuban 
waters.  We  would  [should]  still  require  the 
other  squadrons  in  foreign  ports. — New  York 
Evening  Sun. 

I  zvill  [shall]  remain  with  my  family  in  the 
city  a  couple  of  days,  then  I  will  [shall]  go  on  to 
Washington. 

Israel  Ludlow,  a  lawyer,  who  represents  the 
negroes  who  [that]  have  filed  claims,  said  this 
morning  that  he  would  [should]  file  four  addi- 
tional claims  against  the  city  to-day. 


THE  AUXILIARIES 


17 


"  No,  my  lord,"  was  the  reply  of  the  aged 
prisoner;  "this  is  getting  a  trifle  monotonous. 
I  would  [should]  like  to  know  how  a  fellow  can 
manage  to  please  you  judges.  When  I  was  only 
seventeen  I  got  three  years,  and  the  judge  said 
I  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  myself  stealing  at  my 
age.  When  I  was  forty  I  got  five  years,  and  the 
judge  said  it  was  a  shame  that  a  man  in  his  very 
best  years  should  steal.  And  now,  when  I  am 
seventy  years  of  age,  here  you  come  and  tell  me 
the  same  old  story.  Now,  I  would  [should]  like 
to  know  what  year  of  a  man's  life  is  the  right 
one,  according  to  your  notion  ?  " 


There  were  several  men  in  different  parts  of 
the  audience  who  suggested  that  they  would 
[should]  like  to  hear  about  free  silver,  but  there 
was  no  opportunity  to  ask  the  speaker  questions. 


If  we  assert  sovereignty  over  the  Filipinos  we 
zvtll  [shall]  have  to  defend  that  sovereignty  by 
force,  and  the  Filipinos  will  be  our  enemies. 


"  A  paper,"  said  the  Senator,  growing  per- 
sonal, "  said  that  I  was  interested  in  steel  trusts. 
I  would  [should]  like  to  know  where  the  informa- 
tion was  obtained.  I  want  to  know  what  steel 
trust  I  am  in."  

What  am  I  going  to  do?     Why,  try  and  [to] 
cure  the  rheumatism,  of  course.    Oh,  you  mean  in 
2 


iS  SOME   If./.-L'SF.D   irOA'DS 

a  professional  way!  Why.  I'm  under  contract  to 
Mr.  Daniel  I-'rolnnan.  I  zvill  [shall]  he  a  perma- 
nent nieml)cr  of  his  stock  company  at  Daly's 
Theatre  and  ivill  [shall]  open  there  on  Novemher 
j6tli  in  The  Man  of  Forty.  I  xvill  \  shall]  go  to 
Baltimore  next  week  to  hegin  rehearsals  with  the 
company. 

I  won't  say  that  I  wouldn't  like  to  have  mar- 
ried him  [should  not  have  liked  to  marry  him] 
because  I  would  [should],  but  you  see  there  was 
no  way  out  of  the  Gray  marriage. 


Lieutenant-Governor  Woodruff  finally  de- 
clines a  renomination.  He  tells  Mr.  Piatt  that 
he  can  not  accept,  but  zvoidd  [should]  like  to  be 
chairman  of  the  State  committee.  Mr.  Piatt  says 
that  he  [Woodruff]  will  not  be  chairman  of  the 
committee,  and  that  Horace  White  will  probably 
be  nominated  for  Lieutenant  Governor. 

Send  your  reader  hunting  antecedents 
only  when  you  can  not  well  avoid  it. 


My  husband  was  determined  that  I  should  ac- 
cept his  offer,  and  I — well,  I  was  crazy  to  go,  but 
I  weighed  what  I  would  [should]  gain  against 
what  I  zvould  [should]  lose. — A.  E.  B.  in  the 
Dramatic  Mirror. 

I  thought  j'ou  said  a  short  time  ago  that  you 
would  [should]  not  recover  the  use  of  your  voice 
until  a  certain  person  had  been  elected. 


THE  AUXILIARIES 


19 


Presumably,  this  was  not  a  case  of  de- 
termination.   

Without  any  desire  to  bring  politics  into  the 
church,  he  said  that  he  zvould  [should]  like  to 
have  Governor  Roosevelt  make  an  address  to  the 
people.  

We  will  [shall]  have  headquarters  in  the 
future  at  246  West  Fifty-third  Street,  where  we 
will  [shall]  meet  every  Thursday  evening. 

Mrs.  Leslie  said  that  although  she  had  given 
up  part  of  her  stock  without  consideration  and 
was  a  minority  holder,  she  did  not  intend  to  be 
frozen  out  altogether,  and  that  she  zvould  [should] 
call  on  Mr.  Colver  for  an  explanation. 


What  will  Cleveland  say  when  Mrs.  Dominis 
remarks  [says]  to  him :  "  But  for  your  encour- 
agement I  woidd  [should]  have  accepted  the 
revolution  as  an  accomplished  fact,  and  zvould 
[should]  be  now  in  the  enjoyment  of  [enjoying] 
a  substantial  pension  "  ?  — New  York  Sun. 

Better  re-use  say  than  to  use  remark  as 
it  is  here  used.        

The  fact  of  the  matter  is,  that  instead  of  us 
[our]  owing  either  of  them,  they  have  quite  a 
little  of  our  money,  which  we  zvould  [should]  be 
very  happy  to  get  back. — New  York  Sun. 


20  SOAf/-:   ILI.-rSF.D   WORDS 

WluTt.'  would  |shiuil(l|  \vi'  !>(.■  without  a  nav)'? 
If  \vc  hail  no  navy  \vc  niij^ht  i)rcscntly  find  the 
Powers  of  luiropc  consider! nc;-  ns  as  they  arc  at 
present  consiilerint;'  the  lunpire  of  Cliina. 


/[■///  [shall]  you  hold  any  important  confer- 
ences ? 

I  lalll  [shall]  have  several  consultations  with 
leading  Republicans.  Will  [shall]  likely  meet 
Senators  Sherman,  Quay,  Proctor,  and  others. 
Can  not  say  who  the  others  will  probably  be. — 
New  York  Sun.  

So  far  as  this  committee  is  concerned,  we 
feel  something  like  the  Methodist  minister  who 
shouted  downstairs  to  the  burglar  to  go  ahead 
and  see  if  he  could  find  anything,  and  if  so  [he 
could]  he  zcould  [should]  be  glad  to  divvy  with 
him. 

Mr.  Croker's  gaze  sank  to  the  floor  as  he  said : 
"  I  am  disappointed.  I  never  [have]  had  a  greater 
disappointment.  I  felt  sure  that  we  ivould 
[should]  win — that  Bryan  would  win.  But  it 
can't  be  helped.    You  can  never  tell." 


Flossie  is  six  years  old.  "  Mamma,"  she  asked 
one  day,  "  if  I  get  married  zvill  [shall]  I  have  a 
husband  like  papa?" 

"  Yes,"  replied  the  mother,  with  an  amused 
smile. 


THE  AUXILIARIES  2 1 

"  And  if  I  don't  get  married,  will  [shall]  I 
have  to  be  an  old  maid  like  Aunt  Kate  ?  " 

"  Yes,   Flossie." 

"  Mamma,"  she  said,  after  a  short  pause,  "  it's 
a  tough  world  for  us  women,  ain't  it  ?  " 


I  believe  that  we  are  now  in  a  better  posi- 
tion to  wage  a  successful  contest  against  imperial- 
ism than  we  zvoiild  [should]  have  been  had  the 
treaty  been  rejected. 

Mr.  Van  Wyckle  says  in  case  of  a  strike  he 
will  [shall]  abandon  his  collieries. 


I  have  been  for  long  years  a  Democrat,  but 
at  the  last  presidential  election  [I]  voted  for 
McKinley.  I  zvill  [shall]  vote  for  him  [McKin- 
ley]  again.  Mr.  Bryan  is  the  incarnation  of  eco- 
nomic heresies. 

The  diction  is  strengthened  by  re-tising 
McKinley. 

A  Democrat  zuho  [that]  had  learned  the 
lesson  of  experience  in  the  last  three  years  and 
a  half  asked  a  friend  of  his  how  he  was  going 
to  vote  this  year.  He  said:  "I'm  going  to  vote 
for  Bryan,  of  course."  The  Democrat  asked 
"Why?"  Then  the  friend  said:  "They  told  me 
four  years  ago  that  if  I  would  vote  for  Bryan 
we  would  [should]  have  four  years  of  good  times; 
and  haven't  we  had  it?" 


22  SOMJ'.    Il./.-i'S/:/)    IVOA'DS 

lie  li:ul  adopted  the  idea  tliat  ho  would 
[sliDuldJ  like  to  work  outdoors. — Charles  A. 
Dana.  

Judge  John  A.  Grow,  who  has  heretofore  been 
a  Democrat,  informed  National  Repubhcan  Com- 
mitteeman Frederick  S.  Gibbs  yesterday  in  a  letter 
that  he  could  no  longer  act  with  that  party,  but 
i<.'OHld  [should]  vote  the  straight  Republican 
ticket  this  fall.  

If  we  follow  down  the  official  chronologies  to 
499  A.  D.  we  ivill  [shall]  find  an  account  of  one 
Hw^ui  Shan,  w^ho  in  that  year  returned  to  China. 


Colonel  Gardiner  and  General  Burnett  told 
Magistrate  Flammer  that  they  woidd  [should] 
like  to  have  his  examination  postponed  until  an 
agreement  had  been  reached  about  the  jurisdic- 
tion.   

I  zvill  [shall]  have  it  so  arranged  that  it  can 
be  flooded  with  water,  making  a  stagecraft  vessel 
look  mighty  realistic.  If  necessary  I  zvill  [shall] 
be  able  to  run  a  locomotive  on  that  stage. 


It  was  said  that  he  had  expressed  the  ojjinion 
that  he  could  not  take  a  senatorship  during  the 
coming  four  years  because  he  would  [should] 
"  be  a  very  busy  man." 


THE  AUXILIARIES 


23 


There  will  be  no  change  in  the  theatre's  plans 
for  the  season.  Miss  Irwin  will  stay  there  as 
long  as  it  is  profitable  to  do  so  [stay].  Then 
Amelia  Bingham  will  come  in  with  her  proposed 
dramatic  stock  company.  Miss  Irwin  said  last 
night,  in  reference  to  the  future  policy  of  the 
house :  "  I  will  [shall]  form  a  stock  company  of 
well-known  actors  and  zvill  [shall]  play  all  or  the 
greater  part  of  each  year  at  my  theatre.  I  zvill 
[shall]  open  next  September  for  a  preliminary 
season  of  revivals.  I  zvill  [shall]  get  as  many 
of  the  original  casts  as  possible.  I  zvill  [shall] 
then  produce  one  or  two  new  plays." 


The  story  of  the  defendant  is  different. 
Speaking  of  the  action  of  the  other,  he  said:  "  If 
he  had  touched  me  on  the  shoulder  and  asked  me 
to  move,  I  zvoiild  [should]  have  done  so  [moved]. 


"  JVill  [shall]  you  be  able  to  convince  the 
public,"  it  was  asked,  "  that  this  crusade  of  Tam- 
many's is  not  a  mere  bluff,  set  on  foot  to  offset 
the  Bishop  Potter  crusade?" 


The  chief  says  he  zuill  [shall]  be  able  to  show 
that  a  four-seat  carriage  was  hired  from  Stow- 
croft,  and  that  he  drove  the  men  to  the  Goffle 
Road.  

We  conrluded  that  if  we  could  organize  our- 
selves on  his  system,  we  zi'otdd  [should]  be  sure 


24  SOME   ILL-USED   WORDS 

(if  making-  |  to  make]  a  greater  iniprcssiuii  on  iti- 
uUiycnt  pcoplo. — Charles  A.  Dana. 


"  Gentlemen,"  said  Colonel  Bryan,  siiiiliir^lx 
[smiling],  "if  I  were  superstitious  I  ^coiild 
[should]  look  upon  the  breaking  of  this  looking- 
glass  as  an  ill  omen." 


Miss  Bacon  herself  laughingly  remarked  that 
she  thought  it  likely  that  she  zvoitld  [should] 
marry  an  American. 


I  shall  bring  a  suit  for  damages  against  the 
city  and  in  all  probability  will  [shall]  file  a  com- 
plaint with  the  police  cominissioners. 

Tliis  speaker — or  reporter — evidently 
thinks  shall  and  icill  are  interchano-eable. 


Keenly  aware,  as  we  are,  of  the  serious  re- 
sponsibilities zvhich  [that]  a  political  party  owes 
to  the  State,  we  zvill  [shall]  strive  to  shape  our 
action  in  accordance  with  the  recjuirements  of 
puljlic  interest. 

"  Unfortunately  while  money  talks  all  that 
talks  is  not  money." 

"  Why  do  you  say  '  unfortunately  '  ?  "  she 
asked. 

"  Because  if  that  were  so,"  he  answered,  "  I 
xvould  [should]  be  married  to  a  fabulous  fortune." 


THE  AUXILIARIES 


25 


Personally  I  would  [should]  like  at  least  once 
a  week  to  get  out  from  under  the  incubus  of 
ordinary  obligation  and  to  yield  myself  up  intel- 
lectually and  emotionally  to  the  domination  of 
dramatic  power. — The  Rev.  Dr.  Parkhurst. 


He  said  he  would  [should]  prefer  State  banks 
founded  on  a  specie  basis  to  national  banks,  no 
matter  how  good  the  system,  founded  on  the 
credit  of  the  Government. 


He  intimated,  however,  that  he  had  been  to 
Police  Headquarters  about  the  case,  and  would 
[should]  probably  go  there  again. 


You  know  that  with  the  slightest  prospect  of 
a  foreign  war  we  woidd  [should]  suspend  gold 
payments  and  go  either  to  a  silver  or  [to]  a  paper 
basis  at  once.  

I  would  [should]  like  to  see  them  try  it.  I 
woidd  [should]  like  to  see  the  Police  Board  sub- 
poena me  to  give  testimony  against  accused 
policemen.  I  zvoidd  [should]  simply  refuse  to 
honor  the  summons. — Bishop  Potter  as  reported 
by  the  New  York  Herald. 


After  he  had  plead  [pleaded]  guilty  he  thought 
mercy  woidd  be  shown  him — went  into  the  court- 
room full  of  confidence  that  he  would  [should] 
be  leniently  dealt  with. — New  York  Evening  Sun. 


26  SOME   ILL- USED    WORDS 

A  larj^^o  corporation  is  or<jani7.c(l  l)y  cliaiicr  to 
conduct  business  and  not  politics,  and  wc  xv'ill 
I  shall]  try  to  see  to  it  that  they  attend  to  their 
own  business  and  allow  their  employees  to  do  the 
same  [attend  to  theirs].  , 


I  would  [should]  like  to  have  Bryan  distin- 
guish between  the  trusts.  Whenever  trusts 
amenable  to  law  have  encountered  the  law  they 
have  suffered.  Trusts  contrary  to  the  law  can  not 
stand.  

We  will  [shall]  export  no  goods  and  we  will 
[shall]  import  from  foreign  lands  all  the  goods 
we  use ;  thus  will  ruin,  want  and  misery  be 
with  us.  

They  deny  that  there  is  any  possibility  that 
they  zvill  [shall]  receive  such  treatment  if  once 
they  receive  the  consent  of  the  Sultan  to  settle  in 
Palestine.  

All  the  contest  now,  apparently,  is  to  show  not 
that  the  Filipinos  will  be  injured  by  annexation 
to  our  country,  but  that  we  ourselves  zvill  [shall] 
thereby  lose  our  liberties.  Even  if  we  intended  to 
hold  the  Philii)pines  in  subjection  would  it  follow 
that  we  would  [should]  be  slaves? 


Will  [shall]  I  do  any  speaking  here?  Well, 
I  may  make  a  few  remarks  at  noonday  meetings, 
but  I  have  no  speaking  engagements. 


THE  AUXILIARIES 


27 


But  at  the  bottom  of  it  all  was  confidence,  pro- 
duced by  the  assurarjce  that  we  zvould  [should] 
be  spared  the  degradation  of  a  debased  currency 
and  that  the  gold  standard  would  be  maintained. 


He  said  he  ruould  [should]  rather  have,  at  the 
beginning  of  a  campaign,  the  wife  than  the  hus- 
band on  his  side. — Nczv  York  Sim. 


He  said  that  if  I  did  so,  I  zvould  [should]  be 
doing  him  an  everlasting  favor,  for  he  hoped  to 
secure  a  place  with  the  company  when  it  was 
formed. 


The  chief  shifted  the  responsibility  by  saying 
that  if  the  State  Superintendent  of  Elections  had 
any  evidence  he  would  [should]  be  glad  to  re- 
ceive it  and  to  act  upon  it. 


We  zvill  [shall]  continue  on  to  control  our 
schools  and  teach  our  children  the  history  of  that 
period  as  it  was,  not  as  these  partisans  who  still 
hate  us  have  it. 


A  few  minutes  after  this  conversation  the 
young  woman  came  out,  entered  a  brougham  that 
was  standing  in  front  of  the  house  and  drove 
away.  She  left  word  with  her  servant  that  she 
zvould  [should]  not  be  back  until  evening. 


28  SOME   ILL-USED   irOKDS 

Ilo  rcUiscd  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  cam- 
paign, but  ho  announced  that  he  zcuuUi  [ should j 
vote  for  Bryan. — Nczo  York  Snu. 


E.  L.  iMordecai,  a  broker,  of  52  Broadway, 
said  that  he  had  $9,750  that  he  would  [shouldj 
hke  to  bet  on  the  election. 


I  think  I  zvill  [shall]  make  it  as  near  [nearly] 
like  the  Drury  Lane  Theatre  in  London  as  pos- 
sible, but  of  course  everything  will  be  upon  a 
much  larger  scale. 

I  am  glad  I  came  to-night,  although  I  felt, 
after  hearing  two  such  speakers  as  l\Ir.  Dalzcll 
and  Air.  Barrett,  that  I  i^'oidd  [should]  be  out 
of  place.  

I  expected  to  give  her,  and  would  [should]  be 
compelled  to  do  so  [give  her]  by  the  terms  of  our 
contract,  the  forty  performances  during  the  sea- 
son.— New  York  Sun. 


If  getting  up  public  subscription  zi'dl   [shall] 
be  glad  to  give  $1,000. — Lipton. 


I  wotdd  [should]  not  be  surprised  if  McKinley 
carried  Kentucky  by  30,000  majority. 


Queen  Victoria  fears  she  will  [shall]  not  out- 
live 1896. — Headline  New  York  Sun. 


THE   AUXILIARIES 


29 


If  a  man  wearing  a  shirt  waist  entered  the 
dining  car  and  ladies  objected  to  his  garb,  we 
would  [should]  ask  him  to  put  on  his  coat.  If 
he  refused  to  do  so  [to  put  it  on]  we  would 
[should]  request  him  to  wait  for  his  dinner  until 
the  ladies  left  the  car. 


We  have  grown  so  accustomed  to  the  ubiqui- 
tous speculators  that  we  would  [should]  not  be 
surprised  to  find  them  grouped  around  the  gate 
of  heaven  waiting  for  their  prey. 

If  these  examples  do  nothing  else,  they 
will  go  a  long  way  toward  making  it  appear 
that  will  and  zvoiild  have  good  reason  to 
complain  of  being  imconscionably  ill-used, 
since  they  show  that  zvill  and  ivoiild  are 
continually  made  to  do  duty  not  only  for 
themselves  but  also  for  their  kinsmen  sliall 
and  should. 


THE  NOUN  CONSTRUCTION 

This  is  a  construction  that  is  wellnigh 
universally  employed,  and  yet,  in  strictness, 
it  is  commonly,  perhaps  invariably,  ungram- 
matical.     Wordy  it  certainly  always  is. 

By  Noun  Construction  I  would  desig- 
nate that  construction  that  expresses  action, 
doing,  without  employing  a  verb  in  any 
form  soever;  as,  for  example,  "  It  tends  to 
tJic  elimination  of  the  weak  and  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  strong." — Neiv  York  Sun,  March 
3,  J895. 

This  sentence  is  weak,  the  result  of  hav- 
ing fifty  per  cent  more  syllables  than  are 
necessary,  and,  to  my  thinking,  it  is  un- 
grammatical.  Its  grammar  is  mended  by 
changing  the  nouns  elimination  and  preser- 
vation to  the  verbal  nouns  eliminating  and 
presei'ving,  and  both  grammar  and  rhetoric 
are  mended  by  employing  infinitives,  which 
would  give  us,  "  It  tends  to  eliminate  the 
weak  and  to  preserv^e  the  strong  " — thirteen 
syllables  against  twenty-one. 
30 


THE  NOUN  CONSTRUCTION 


31 


Economics  is  the  science  that  treats  of  the 
development  [developing]  of  material  resources, 
or  of  the  production  [producing],  preservation 
[preserving],  and  distribution  [distributing]  of 
Avealth  and  of  the  means  and  methods  of  living 
well. — Standard  Dictionary. 

The  science  of  the  developing  and  the 
producing;  the  Jiistory  of  the  development 
and  the  production.  It  is  always  desirable 
to  express  the  thought  absolutely. 


At  the  present  stage  of  the  canvass  no  occupa- 
tion is  less  profitable  than  the  construction  [con- 
structing] of  tables  of  the  electoral  vote  showing 
the  probable  results  in  November. — N.  Y.  Sun. 

The  act  of  constructing  a  table,  which 
is  what  is  here  meant,  is  one  thing;  the  con- 
struction, the  make-up,  of  a  table,  after  it 
has  been  constructed,  is  quite  another  thing. 
The  same  word  should  not  be  used  to  ex- 
press the  thought  in  both  cases.  In  strict- 
ness, we  must  employ  a  verb  in  some  form 
properly  to  express  a  doing.  The  using  of 
nouns  where  verbs  are  required — or,  I 
should  say,  perhaps,  the  making  of  noims 
do  verbal  service — is  wellnigh  universal.  Is 
it,  or  can  it  ever  become,  good  grammar? 
I  think, not. 


32 


SOMI-:  ILL-USED   irORDS 


The  special  order  for  the  oiieniiig  day  of  tlie 
session  is  for  the  erection  [erecting]  of  a  bridge 
across  the  Detroit  River  at  Detroit.  Among 
other  special  orders  are  the  house  bills  to  prevent 
the  extermination  of  the  fur-bearing  seals  of 
Alaska  and  to  reduce  [to  lessen  the  number  of] 
cases  in  which  the  death  penalty  may  be  inflicted. 
— New  York  Sun. 

In  the  first  sentence,  the  writer  uses  a 
noun  in  precisely  the  same  manner  that  he 
uses  verbs  in  in  the  second.  "  To  reduce 
the  cases"  seems  to  me  too  elliptical.  Lessen 
the  number  is  more  idiomatic  than  reduce 
the  number.  

The  scheme  for  the  retirement  of  [to  retire] 
the  greenbacks,  therefore,  can  not  furnish  an  issue 
for  the  Democratic  party. — Nezv  York  Sun. 

Why  use  six  syllables  when  three  will 
suffice?  Then,  with  three  syllables  the  sen- 
tence is  «rraiumatical,  which  with  six  it  is 
not.  

During  the  past  year  rapid  progress  has  been 
made  toward  the  completion  of  [completing]  the 
scheme  adopted  for  the  erection  [erecting]  and 
ar;Ha;n^»^  [arming]  of  fortifications  along  our  sea- 
coast,  while  equal  progress  has  been  made  in  pro- 
viding the  material  for  submarine  defence  in  con- 
nection with  these  works. — President  Cleveland. 


THE  NOUN  CONSTRUCTION 


33 


The  Republican  party  claimed  protection  and 
the  Democratic  party  silver  to  be  the  paramount 
issue.  The  people  have  declared  in  favor  of  pro- 
tection and  have  given  the  Republican  party  a 
contract  for  the  restoration  of  [to  restore]  pros- 
perity. 

The  dukes  were  to  receive  compensation  for 
the  resignation  of  [resigning]  their  claims. 


Most  of  the  provinces  were  pays  d'clcction, 
i.  e.,  they  were  divided  into  districts  in  which  the 
assessment  [assessing]  and  collection  [collecting] 
of  taxes  were  vested  in  royal  officials. 


The  arrangements  for  diffusing  education  and 
the  establishment  of  newspapers. — Nezv  York 
Sun. 

Why  two  forms  of  expression  in  the 
same  sentence?  Why  not  estabhshing 
newspapers? 

In  the  consideration  of  [considering]  Hamlet's 
case,  nothing  should  be. — Richard  Grant  White. 


Education  that  is  not  centred  on  the  refine- 
ment [refining]  and  ennoblement  [ennobling]  of 
the  mind  ...  is  worse  than  the  shadow. — 
Dawson. 


34  SO.UF.    I  LI. -USED    WORDS 

Chief  Byrnes  puts  at  the  disposal  of  Mayor 
Strong  his  services  for  the  rcformalion  [reform- 
ing] and  reorganization  [reorganizing]  of  tlic 
police  force. — New  York  Sun. 

Better :  in  reforming  and  reorganizing. 


Statistics  is  the  science  that  deals  with  the 
collection  [collecting],  classification  [classifying], 
and  tabulation  [tabulating]  of  facts. — Standard 
Dictionary. 

Mr.  Iselin  is  giving  unremitting  personal  care 
and  labor  to  the  supervision  [supervising]  and 
development  [developing]  of  the  Defender. — New 
York  Sun. 

It  is  merely  a  matter  of  police  regulation;  it 
v\'ill  also  be  serviceable  in  the  imposition  and  col- 
lection [imposing  and  collecting]  of  taxes. — Nezv 
York  Sun. 

The  policy  of  the  Administration  has  resulted 
in  the  establishment  of  [establishing]  a  precedent. 
— New  York  Sun. 

The  determination  [determining]  of  distances 
with  a  telemeter .—S t a nd ard  Dictionary. 


The   preparation    [preparing]    of  tobacco   for 
use    is    called    curing.      It    has    for    its    purpose 


THE   NOUN   CONSTRUCTION 


35 


the  drying  and  preservation  [preserving]  of  the 
leaf  as  well  as  the  development  [developing]  of 
the  peculiar  aroma. 

The  Legislature  may  provide  by-laws  for  the 
supervision  [supervising],  registration  [register- 
ing], control  [controlling],  and  identification 
[identifying]  of  all  persons. 


The  slowness  in  the  collection  [collecting]  and 
circulation  [circulating]  of  news.  [Better:  in 
collecting  and  circulating  news.] 

It  is  not  by  the  consolidation  or  the  concentra- 
tion of  powers,  but  by  their  distribution,  that 
good  government  is  effected.  [It  is  not  by  con- 
solidating or  concentrating  powers,  but  by  dis- 
tributing them,  that ] 


The  indication  of  an  infinitive  by  to  without 
the  actual  expression  of  the  verb  to  which  it  be- 
longs is  a  colloquialism.  Rewritten :  The  indicat- 
ing of  an  infinitive  with  to  without  the  verb  it 
belongs  to  is  a  colloquialism. 


The  imposition  [imposing]  of  a  duty  on  wool 
will  help  the  wool  business  by  giving  it  incidental 
protection. — Nezv  York  Sun. 


For  above  all   the  grievances  of  the   miners 
has  been  pushed  a  greater  question,  the  question 


36  so.\fK  n.i.-vsr.n  words 

of  wIiolluM-  might  or  right  shall  rule  in  the  scillc- 
iiiciit  I  settling]  of  lahor  disputes,  and  on  this 
question  the  operators  have  put  themselves  un- 
qualifiedly in  the  wrong. 


If  this  be  so.  it  is  plain  that  the  time  is  by  no 
means  yet  ripe  for  the  evacuation  of  [to  evacuate] 
Pekin.  

The  Washington  Star  calls  for  the  dethrone- 
ment [dethroning]  of  the  Empress  Dowager. 


For  our  own  part  we  wish  Mr.  Allen  would  re- 
dedicate  his  rare  talents  to  the  production  [pro- 
ducing] of  books  in  his  earlier  manner. 


No  doubt  IVIr.  Allen  knows;  but  if  there  is 
anything  to  make  him  imagine  that  the  propaga- 
tion [propagating]  of  his  dry  and  dreary  agnosti- 
cism will  make  men  either  better  or  happier,  he 
keeps  that  secret  very  closely  to  himself. 


And  Mr.  McKinlcy  declares  that  this  would 
be  the  immediate  effect  of  the  election  [electing] 
of  Bryan. 

That  is,  the  effect  of  doing  something. 


Taking  the  city  and  county  of  Xew  York  as 
an  example,   it  is   found  that  over   [more  than] 


THE  NOUN   CONSTRUCTION 


37 


$20,000,000  was  spent  during  1899  in  the  repres- 
sion [repressing]  and  correction  [correcting]  of 
crime,  out  of  a  total  expenditure  of  about  $90,- 
000,000.  This  means  a  crime  taxation  of  $6  per 
capita.  An  analysis  of  San  Francisco's  budget 
shows  an  average  of  $5  per  capita.  In  smaller 
cities,  the  average  is  about  $3.50  per  capita.  With 
these  averages  as  a  basis,  Mr.  Smith  calculates 
that  $1  per  [an  or  the]  inhabitant  in  the  "  open 
country  "  is  a  conservative  estimate. 

The  Latin  preposition  per  is  a  good  deal 
used  in  such  phrases  as  per  day,  per  man, 
per  pound,  per  ton,  and  so  on.  In  all  such 
cases  it  is  better  to  use  plain  English,  and 
say  a  day,  a  man,  a  pound,  etc.  Per  is  cor- 
rect before  Latin  nouns. only;  as  per  annum, 
per  diem,  per  cent.  In  short:  Never  mix 
languages,  if  you  can  well  avoid  it. — llie 
Verbalist,  page  20^. 


No  department  offered  less  encouragement  to 
the  spirit  of  monopoly  than  the  production  [pro- 
ducing], refinement  [refining],  and  distribution 
[distributing]  of  this  natural  oil. 


It  is  possible,  however,  that,  if  Germany  and 
Great  Britain  persist  in  retaining  possession  of 
the  Chinese  capital  pending  negotiations  for  the 
restoration   [restoring]    of  order  and  the  settle- 


-8  SO.U/:    II. I. -USED    WORDS 

iiii'iit  [settling I  of  questions  in  dispute.  Russia 
antl  ['"ranee  may  deem  it  advisable  to  keep  a  part 
of  their  forces  also  in  Pekin. 


The  dissolution  [dissolving]  of  Parliament 
was  therefore  an  absolute  necessity.  The  Gov- 
ernment hopes  that  the  people  will  send  men 
willing  to  assist  in  the  development  of  [develop- 
ing] the  country.  The  Government,  by  dissolving 
a  Parliament  zi'hich  [that]  did  no  positive  work, 
carries  out  a  constitutional  principle. 


I""r()m  tlie  days  of  the  Revival  of  Learning 
authors  appear  to  have  exercised  a  large  amount 
of  ingenuity  in  the  selection  of  [selecting]  titles 
for  their  works. 

In  131 1  Pope  Clement  had  ordered  the  estab- 
lishuicnt  of  professorships  for  the  study  of  the 
Sacred  Word;  and  Pius  VI,  in  1778,  congratu- 
lated the  Archbishop  of  Florence  on  his  success 
in  placing  the  Scriptures  in  the  hands  of  the 
people. 

Here  is  the  very  acme  of  awkwardness. 
Ordered  professorships  to  be  estabhshed; 
or,  elHptically,  estabhshed. 


These  results  tended  to  a  restoration  of   [to 
restore]  confidence,  but  it  was  not  until  the  defeat 


THE   NOUN   CONSTRUCTION 


39 


of  Bryan  and  [the]  success  of  the  party  of  sound 
money  in  1896  that  confidence  was  fully  restored. 


Every  patriotic  American,  and  every  Demo- 
crat in  particular,  should  favor  expansion. 

Jefferson  was  an  expansionist,  otherwise  he 
would  not  have  favored  the  acquisition  [acquir- 
ing] of  Louisiana  with  its  foreign  population 
which  in  Jefferson's  time  was  quite  as  remote  as 
the  Philippines. 

The  acquiring  of  Louisiana  was  a  mag- 
nificent acquisition. 


The  Liberal  press  of  Great  Britain  have  been 
quickest  in  the  recognition  of  [to  recognize]  this 
fact  and  strongest  in  deploring  it. 


The  malaria  problem  is  not  yet  entirely  solved, 
but  these  experiments  certainly  afford  very  strong 
confirmation  of  the  theory  that  makes  mosquitoes 
chiefly  responsible  for  the  conveyance  [convey- 
ing] of  the  poison  to  man. 

The  mosqtiito  is  the  conveyance  that  does 
the  conveying?        

In  the  application  of  [applying]  that  definition 
to  religious  matters  it  at  once  becomes  evident 
that  there  must  be  a  large  exercise  of  reason  be- 
fore there  can  be  any  such  thing  as  an  act  of 
faith. 


40  SOME   II.L-l  SEP   WORDS 

People  in  the  West  can  scarcely  imagine  how 
much  attention  is  paid  in  Persia  and  elsewhere 
in  the  Orient  to  the  production  [producing]  of  a 
iiiicly  finished  niaiuiscript. 


Richard  H.  Adams,  chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Buildings,  Board  of  Education,  adver- 
tised to-day  for  bids-  for  the  erection  [erecting] 
of  a  building  for  the  High  School  of  Commerce. 


By  the  treaty  of  Shimonoseki,  May,  1895, 
China  renounced  her  claim  of  suzerainty,  and 
Japan  began  to  institute  reforms,  such  as  the  divi- 
sion [dividing]  of  the  country  into  districts,  the 
raising  of  revenue  by  taxation,  the  establishment 
[establishing]  of  Government  departments,  and 
the  regular  payment  [paying]  of  officials. 

If  raising,  why  not  paying? 


The  collection  [collecting]  of  rubber,  how- 
ever, presents  many  features  of  interest,  and  de- 
serves more  extended  treatment. 


It  was  argued  that  enough  laxity  or  careless 
irregularity  in  the  conduct  of  [conducting]  the 
office  had  been  shown  to  justify  the  removal  of 
the  prosecuting  officer  of  this  county,  and,  fur- 
ther, that  whether  such  were  [was]  the  case  or 
not,  it  would  be  excellent  politics  to  assume  the 
guilt  of  the  defendant. 


THE  NOUN  CONSTRUCTION 


41 


We  do  not  need  the  subjunctive  here; 
and  if  we  did,  zvcrc  would  not  serve.  Were 
can  never,  properly,  be  employed  as  a  past 
or  as  a  future  subjunctive. 


Secretary  Hay  to-day  transmitted  to  the  Ger- 
man Government  the  answer  of  the  United  States 
to  the  recent  communications  of  Germany,  in 
which  modifications  are  made  of  the  proposals  for 
the  punishment  [punishing]  of  the  Boxer  leaders 
by  the  Powers  as  a  condition  precedent  of  peace 
negotiations.  This  first  proposal  of  Germany  did 
not  meet  with  the  approval  of  the  United  States. 

Better:  Proposals  to  punisJi  the  Boxer 
leaders.  Note  the  circumstance  that  the 
writer  says  proposal,  and  not  proposition. 
Proposition  is  a  much  misused  word. 


Special  attention  given  to  the  management 
[managing]  of  real  estate  and  the  collection  [col- 
lecting] and  remittance  [remitting]  of  rents. 


What  was  left  of  the  Democratic  organization, 
however,  assembled  at  Chicago  in  August,  1864, 
for  the  nomination  of  [to  nominate]  a  candidate 
for  President,  and  it  adopted  a  platform  denounc- 
ing the  war  as  a  "  failure." 


To  the  great  shame  of  the  city  of  New  York, 
it  is  now  represented  in  Congress  by  a  delegation 


42 


SO.U£   ILL-USED   WOI^DS 


elected  in  iS()S.  no  diie  of  the  sixteen  members  of 
whicli  conld  l)e  indnced  to  declare  himself  in 
favor  of  the  preservation  of  [preserving]  the  gold 
standard.  

He  leaves  to  Congress  the  decision  [deciding] 
of  the  question  of  the  future  government  of  the 
islands.  

The  trades  unions  had  given  notice  that  in 
the  celebration  of  [celebrating]  Labor  Day  there 
vi^as  to  be  no  politics.  If  the  speeches  of  Mr. 
Bryan  and  Governor  Roosevelt  are  read  it  will 
be  found  that  the  latter  [Governor  Roosevelt] 
scrupulously  respected  the  wishes  of  his  hosts, 
while  j\Ir.  Bryan  violated  the  luiderstanding.  The 
Governor's  address  was  a  manly,  thoughtful,  dis- 
interested treatment  of  the  condition  of  labor. 
Mr.  Bryan's  address  was  an  [a]  harangue  for 


They  like  him  personally,  but  they  are  afraid 
to  trust  him  in  the  management  of  [to  manage] 
their  governmental  affairs.  It  is  like  the  relations 
of  a  good  many  business  men  with  those  they 
meet  socially.  The  men  they  enjoy  playing  bil- 
liards with  at  the  club  may  not  be  the  ones  [men] 
they  would  want  to  put  in  charge  of  their  busi- 
ness afTairs.  

That  was  bound  to  be  a  condition,  but  a  seri- 
ous problem  will  confront  the  Allies  when  it  be- 
comes necessary  to  agree  upon  a  plan  for  the 
collection  of  [collecting]   the  money. 


THE  NOUN  CONSTRUCTION 


43 


These  documents  constitute  the  first  definite 
step  whicli  [that]  has  been  taken  toward  the  solu- 
tion [solving]  of  the  Chinese  problem  since  the 
rescue  of  the  legations. 


They  exist  for  the  accomplishment  [accom- 
plishing] of  public  objects.  They  should  have  for 
their  ideals  the  maintenance  [maintaining]  of 
good  government,  the  application  [applying]  of 
right  principles  to  public  affairs,  the  ascertain- 
ment [ascertaining]  of  the  will  of  the  people 
touching  public  policies,  and  the  embodiment  [em- 
bodying] of  that  will  in  prompt  and  effective 
legislation.  The  Republican  party  is  the  giant  in- 
strument for  the  attainment  [attaining]  of  these 
ideals. 


The  success  of  the  law  for  the  taxation  [tax- 
ing] of  franchises  recently  enacted  in  New  York 
State,  a  measure  which  [that]  has  resulted  in 
putting  upon  the  assessment  books  nearly  $200,- 
000,000  worth  of  property  which  [that]  had  there- 
tofore escaped  taxation,  is  an  illustration  of 


The  effort  for  the  adoption  by  the  Powers  of 
[by  the  Powers  to  adopt]  a  programme  for  har- 
monious action  in  China  has  resulted  in  expres- 
sions from  all  the  Powers  to  the  effect  that  only 
by  unity  can  the  Allies  successfully  negotiate  for 
peace. 


44 


SOME   ILL-VSEl)    WORDS 


It  imist  1)0  uiuk-rstood  thai  the  (Ulrj^ates  do  not 
know  tlic  ilctails  of  the  phiii  /or  ihc  liberation  of 
[to  Hl)ci-atc.  or  for  liberating]  their  race. 


An  officer  of  prominence  said  that  the  rules  of 
common  sense  would  prevail  in  the  settlement 
[settling]  of  the  future  of  China  and  he  was  evi- 
dently hopeful  of  a  favorable  outcome. 


Later  he  assisted  in  the  bombardment   [bom- 
barding, i.  e.,  to  bombard]  of  Fort  Anderson. 


So  far,  then,  from  the  reviled  "  trusts  "  offer- 
ing injury  to  labor,  they  [the  trusts]  are  destined 
to  offer  to  it  [labor]  an  opportunity  for  combina- 
tion in  production  [to  combine  in  producing] 
which  will  settle  the  "  labor  question  "  by  making 
labor  itself  the  capital. 

Trusts  should  be  in  the  possessive  case. 


These  two  advisory  bodies  have  recommended 
the  building  of  battle  ships  and  armored  cruisers. 
It  is  understood  that  Mr.  Long  is  opposed  to  the 
construction  [constructing]  of  any  armorclads, 
and  in  this  he  is  supported  by  several  naval  offi- 
cers, members  of  the  boards. 

If  biiUdiiig  is  correct — which  it  certainly 
is — then  construction  must  be  incorrect;  if 
the  one  is  good  grammar,  the  other  is  bad 
grammar. 


THE   NOUN   CONSTRUCTION 


45 


The  inventor  discards  tall  poles  in  the  opera- 
tion of  [operating]  his  system  and  uses  cylinders 
of  moderate  heig-ht. 


The  hackney  taught  the  value  of  type  in  the 
heavy  harness  horse,  and  through  breeding  on  and 
more  often  [oftener]  by  "  hackneyizing "  the 
made  trotter,  the  efifect  of  the  introduction  of  [in- 
troducing] the  breed  has  been  clearly  apparent. 


Should  it  be  proved  that  the  girl  came  to  her 
death  through  acts  leading  up  to  and  in  the  com- 
mission [committing]  of  a  felony,  the  law  classi- 
fies the  crime  as  murder  in  the  first  degree. 


For  two  weeks  fifty  or  more  persons,  some 
connected  with  the  Police  Department,  and  others 
privately  employed,  all  of  them  experienced  in 
detective  work,  have  directed  all  their  energies  to 
the  solution  [solving]  of  the  problem. 


Wherever  Nietzsche's  teachings  reach,  wher- 
ever men  become  acquainted  with  his  great  and 
peculiar  personality,  it  will  attract  strongly,  as 
well  as  repel,  but  everywhere  it  will  contribute  to 
the  development  [developing]  and  formation 
[forming]  of  each  individuality. 

It  will  help  to  develop  and  form  each  in- 
dividuality. 


46  SOME   /I. I. -USED   WORDS 

Since  the  (loath  of  Brahms,  a  struggle  has 
been  going  on  bctiijccn  [among]  his  relatives  and 
several  musical  societies  with  regard  to  the  dis- 
position  [disposing]  of  his  possessions. 


Counsel  for  Miss  W'cndLl  said  he  zvoiild 
[should]  fight  the  confiruiation  [confirming]  of 
the  report  of  the  commissioners  based  on  the  ver- 
dict of  the  sherifY's  jury,  and  if  he  lost  he  would 
[should]  appeal. 

He  shotild  flight  against  the  report's 
being"  conl'irmed. 


Protestants  were  even  obliged  to  complain 
that  Catholic  countries  were  in  advance  of  them 
in  the  printing  and  circulation  [circulating]  of 
the  Scriptures. 

The  details  relating  to  the  organisation  [or- 
ganizing] of  the  Relief  Committee  were  perfected 
by  tlic  selection  of  [selecting]  the  following  as 
officers. 


I  have  deposited  $50,000  in  marketable  rail- 
road bonds,  to  be  used  as  a  fund  for  defraying 
expenses  incident  to  the  investigation  [investigat- 
ing] and  prosecution  [prosecuting]  of  frauds  of 
the  election  to  be  held  next  Tuesday  and  in  Feb- 
ruary. 


THE  NOUN  CONSTRUCTION 


47 


Whatever,  then,  the  Republican  party  has  al- 
ready done  for  the  establishment  [to  establish] 
and  preservation  of  [and  preserve]  the  gold 
standard  and  whatever  further  law  it  might  pass 
at  the  coming  second  session  of  Congress  for  its 
protection  [to  protect  it]  against  Bryan  could  be 
repealed  by  his  Congress  at  once,  if  it  was 
[should  be?]  so  disposed. 


In  case  of  another  Pozuer  [Power's]  making 
use  of  the  complications  in  China  in  order  to  ob- 
tain, under  any  form  whatever,  such  territorial 
advantages,  the  two  contracting  parties  reserve  to 
themselves  the  right  to  come  to  a  preliminary 
understanding  regarding  the  eventual  step  to  be 
taken  for  the  protection  of  [to  protect]  their  own 
interests  in  China. 

It  was  not  a  question  of  the  imposition  [im- 
posing] upon  the  people  of  South  America  of  any 
system  of  government  devised  in  Europe,  but 
simply  the  determination  [determining]  of  the 
frontier  of  a  British  possession. 


The  commission  is  to  begin  at  once  orgam::a- 
tion  of  [to  organize]  native  municipalities  on  the 
model  of  General  Otis  and  to  build  from  these  to 
provincial  governments. 


Telegraphic  advices  from  Minister  Conger  re- 
ceived at  the  State  Department  to-day  show  that 


48  SOME  ILL-USED   WORDS 

tlic  diplomatic  body  at  Pckin  is  making  progress 
in  its  (ictcnnination  of  [determining]  the  pro- 
gramme to  be  submitted  to  the  Chinese  peace 
plenipotentiaries  as  a  basis  for  the  settlement 
[settling]  of  the  existing  troubles. 

Basis  on  wliicli  to  settle  cxistinj^  troubles. 
In  matters  graniniatical.  the  thou^iil  deter- 
mines. 


A  survey  of  the  past  [last]  twenty  or  twenty- 
five  years  reveals  nothing  more  striking  than  the 
progress  labor  has  made.  This  is  seen  in  the 
numerous  [many]  laws  that  have  been  passed 
for  the  protection  of  [to  protect]  employees' 
rights  and  the  betterment  of  [better]  their  con- 
dition. 


For  the  first  time  in  our  history  the  world  has 
seen,  during  Mr.  McKinley's  administration,  the 
army  and  navy  promptly  and  effectively  used  for 
the  protection  [to  protect]  and  relief  of  [relieve] 
American  citizens  suffering  from  violation  of 
treaty  rights  in  a  foreign  country. 


The  Kansas  City  Convention  was  adverse  to 
reaffirmation  of  [reaffirming]  the  Chicago  plat- 
form, and  a  majority  of  its  delegates  honestly 
hoped  to  purge  the  party  of  the  vicious  heresies 
zvhich  [that]  had  lost  it  the  respect  and  confi- 
dence of  the  country. 


THE   NOUN   CONSTRUCTION 


49 


Another  magazine,  in  high  standing  among  the 
Catholics,  the  Ave  Maria,  said :  "  In  Father 
O'Conor's  version  the  work  of  editing  has  con- 
sisted in  the  omission  [omitting]  of  certain  genu- 
ine passages  and  the  insertion  [inserting]  of  other 
brief  ones  [passages]  zuhich  [that]  are  commonly 
supposed  to  be  innocent  interpolations." 


As  the  telegrams  from  Shanghai  zvhich  [that] 
we  printed  on  Sunday  have  been  confirmed  by 
subsequent  despatches  to  London  newspapers,  we 
are  justified  in  assuming  that  the  first  step  has 
been  taken  toward  the  solution  [solving]  of  the 
Chinese  problem. 

Put  them  all  through;  but  let  the  legislation 
for  the  absolutely  necessary  re-enforcement  [re- 
enforcing]  of  the  army  have  the  right  of  way 
over  them  all. 

The  dates  for  the  beginning  and  termination 
[terminating]  of  relations  were  precisely  fixed. 


The  right  of  a  man  to  make  a  fool  of  himself 
is  probably  inalienable.  Equally  so  [inalienable] 
is  the  right  of  any  two  men  to  agree  that  under 
[in?]  certain  circumstances  one  shall  do  some- 
thing for  the  amusement  of  [to  amuse]  the  other. 


On   all   sides   complaints   loud   and   deep   are 
heard  as  to  the  scarcity  of  servants,  and  various 
4 


50 


SOME   ILL-USED   ll'OKDS 


I  many]  remedies,  more  or  less  practical,  have 
been  suggested  for  the  alleviation  of  \  to  alleviate] 
the  housewife's  trouble. 


The  deposition  [deposing]  of  the  Empress 
Dowager  is,  indeed,  believed  by  many  papers  to 
be  a  necessary  precaution  for  the  future. 


The  plan  calls  for  the  construction  [construct- 
ing] of  three  battle  ships,  three  armored  cruisers, 
and  twelve  gunboats ;  the  exact  number  of  the 
latter  class  of  vessels  [gunboats],  however,  has 
not  been  fixed. 


It  is  very  likely,  however,  as  was  indicated  in 
a  Washington  despatch  to  the  Sun  yesterday,  that 
the  Government  will  not  agree  to  the  proposition 
[proposal]  to  prohibit  the  importation  \  import- 
ing] of  firearms  and  ammunition  into  China. 


He  reminded  the  board  that  out  of  sixty-eight 
ordinances  for  the  betterment  [bettering]  of  the 
water  supply  in  the  city,  it  had  only  passed 
[passed  only]  fifteen. 


I  have  been  so  busily  engaged  in  the  construc- 
tion of  [constructing]  my  steel  plant  during  these 
prosperous  times  that  I  have  given  hardly  a 
thought  to  politics. 


THE  NOUN  CONSTRUCTION 


51 


I  certainly  think  that  the  drazuing  up  and  the 
passage  [passing]  of  this  bill  will  be  the  first  and 
primary  business  of  the  State  Legislature  when 
it  assembles. 

Yesterday  was  the  first  day  for  the  collection 
[collecting]  of  taxes,  and  between  $10,000,000 
and  $12,000,000  was  taken  in  at  the  Tax  Re- 
ceiver's office. 


He  has  had  a  stormy  career,  but  in  the  main 
[he]  has  been  successful,  as  far  as  the  attainment 
[attaining]  of  political  honors  at  the  hands  of  his 
party  is  concerned. 

Does  the  Constitution  authorize  any  one  to 
commit  the  United  States  to  the  maintenance 
[maintaining]  and  support  [supporting]  of  the 
ambitions  or  [the]  pretensions  of  any  foreign 
ruler  or  usurper? 

His  conduct  in  the  enforcement  [enforcing] 
and  collection  of  [collecting]  forfeited  bail  bonds 
was  claimed  to  have  been  improper. 


Engineers  started  this  morning  making  a  sur- 
vey and  running  lines  preparatory  to  the  resump- 
tion [resuming]  of  work. 


But  the  Chinese  have  special  grievances:  the 
opening  of  ports  and  the  imposition   [imposing] 


52 


SOME    ILL-USED    WORDS 


of  obnoxious  treaties  on  tlieni  hy  force,  the  can- 
struction  [constructing]  of  railways  and  tele- 
graphs, and  the  zi.'orkiiig  of  mines  in  such  a  way 
as  to  disturb  the  graves  of  ancestors. 

If  "  opening  of  ports  "  and  "  working  of 
mines,"  why  not  "  imposing  of  treaties  " 
and  "  constructing  of  railways  "  ? 


The  judiciary  department  of  this  Government, 
aided  by  the  Minister  of  Commerce,  is  reported 
to  be  working  on  a  general  law  governing  the 
formation  [forming]  and  conduct  [conducting]  of 
trusts. 

The  embroidery  [embroidering]  of  robes  is 
also  done  by  men,  and  is  in  very  great  demand. 


Another  decree  is  to  be  issued  in  regard  to  the 
selection  [selecting]  of  judges  of  first  instance 
and  judges  of  the  Audencia. 

If  the  selecting  was  judiciously  done,  it 
resulted  in  their  having  a  good  selection. 


It  would  hardly  be  surprising  to  find  that  there 
was  [is]  an  enterprising  young  lawyer  behind 
that  Cleveland  club  for  the  encouragement  [en- 
couraging] of  divorce. 

It  is  not  a  question  here  of  past  but  of 
present  time,  hence  is. 


THE  NOUN  CONSTRUCTION 


53 


But  all  the  same  the  question  of  the  preven- 
tion [preventing]  of  seasickness  is  always  inter- 
esting. 

The  title  of  the  organization  is  "  The  National 
Society  for  the  Relief  of  [to  Relieve]  Dependent 
Widows  and  Orphans  of  the  Officers  and  Enlisted 
Men  of  the  Regular  Army  of  the  United  States." 


A  considerable  period  of  time  was  required 
for  the  vianufacture  [to  manufacture]  and  erec- 
tion of  [erect]  this  monster  machine. 


In  the  argument  [arguing]  of  legal  questions 
before  the  courts  his  briefs  were  prepared  by  his 
assistants,  and  no  man  knew  better  how  to  use 
them. 

Better,  because  simpler:  In  arguing  legal 
qtiestions.  

Protest  Government  against  evacuation  [evac- 
uating] Pekin  and  recognition  [recognizing]  Li 
Hung  Chang.     Both  disastrous  to  missions. 


The  eight  hundred  students  at  the  college  pro- 
pose to  experience  all  the  excitement  of  a  presi- 
dential campaign,  even  if  their  votes  do  not  con- 
tribute directly  to  the  election  [electing]  of  any 
candidates. 


54  SOME  ILL-USED   IVOKDS 

The  coniniiltcc  would  not  listen  to  the  de- 
mands of  the  men  in  regard  to  the  employment 
[employing]  and  discharge  [discharging]  of  the 
workmen.  

Prince  Ching  will  leave  the  arrangement  [ar- 
ranging] of  the  preliminaries  largely  to  Li  Hung 
Chang. 

That  is,  Prince  Ching  will  leave  to  Li 
Hung  Chang  the  doing  of  something — the 
arranging,  

The  steamer  Boscowitz,  the  last  to  arrive 
from  the  north,  brings  details  of  one  of  the 
strangest  mysteries  connected  with  the  explora- 
tion [exploring]  and  development  [developing]  of 
Alaska.  

The  authority  of  the  United  States  is  to  be 
exerted  for  the  securing  of  the  persons  and  prop- 
erty of  the  people  of  the  islands  and  for  the  con- 
firmation [confirming]  of  all  their  private  rights 
and  relations.  

The  discharge  of  Colonel  Harrison  is  the  re- 
sult of  the  abolishment  of  [abolishing]  the  De- 
partment of  Porto  Rico,  of  which  he  was  In- 
spector General.         

The  dredgers  are  fully  aware  of  this  and  never 
feel  any  fear  of  bodily  harm  while  being  chased. 
Another  thing  zvhich  [that]  hampers  the  adniinis- 


THE   NOUN   CONSTRUCTION 


55 


fration  [administering]  of  the  law  is  the  fact  that 
the  sympathies  of  the  justices  and  judges  are  gen- 
erally [commonly]  with  the  oystermen  in  the 
country  districts.        

The  real  crusade  against  the  promotion  [pro- 
moting] and  protection  [protecting]  of  vice  in 
this  city  has  begun. 

Offers  its  services  for  the  safe  keeping  and 
judicious  management  [managing]  of  trust  funds. 


It  is  admitted  by  the  present  biographer  that 
the  cardinal  was  a  cold  man,  unwavering  in  his 
animosities  and  merciless  in  the  infliction  of  [in- 
flicting] punishment. 


This  clause  provides  that  the  residue  and  re- 
mainder of  the  estate,  which  is  a  large  one,  be 
used  for  the  erection  [to  erect]  and  maintenance 
of  [maintain]  a  suitable  building  by  the  city  of 
Woburn,  to  be  used  and  occupied  as  a  library. 

Which  is  large,  instead  of  Which  is  a 
large  one.  

After  careful  consideration  of  [carefully  con- 
sidering] the  subject  of  Boston  [Boston's]  being 
represented  in  the  Cup  defence,  it  developed  be- 
yond question  that  the  sentiment  of  our  best 
yachtsmen  zvas  [is]  that  the  city  should  be,  if  it 
were   [is]   possible.      It  likewise  developed   that 


56 


SOME   ILL-USED   WORDS 


there  xvcrc  [are]  many  obstacles  in  the  way  of 
successful  realization  of  [realizing]  this  desire. 
Modern  Cup  defending  has  grown  to  be  expen- 
sive, so  expensive  as  to  almost  [almost  to]  exclude 
small  communities  like  ours  from  taking  part. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  follow  every  word 
that  expresses  a  condition  with  the  sul)jimc- 
tive,  many  as  there  are  that  seem  to  think 
it  is.  Here,  the  subjunctive  says:  "  If  it  were 
possible,  which  it  is  not,"  which  is  wide  of 
the  thought.  

Desirous  as  we  are  to  secure  the  harmonious 
working  of  the  administrative  [administration] 
machinery  and  to  preserve  the  equity  and  justice 
of  its  action,  we  propose  to  use  scrupulous  vigi- 
lance in  the  appointment  of  [appointing]  officials ; 
to  avoid  useless  formalities  in  the  transaction  of 
[transacting]  official  business,  to  clearly  define 
and  rigidly  exact  [clearly  to  define  and  rigidly  to 
exact]  the  performance  of  the  duties  and  respon- 
sibilities attaching  to  the  various  official  posi- 
tions, to  maintain  strict  discipline  among  public 
functionaries  and  to  secure  such  despatch  and 
precision  in  the  conduct  of  [conducting]  business 
as  are  required  by  the  country. 

There  could  not  be  such  a  thing-  as  ad- 
ministvativc  machinery.  \Ve  do  not  per- 
form duties  or  responsibilities,  we  discharge 
them. 


THE   NOUN   CONSTRUCTION 


57 


The  holding  of  ptibHc  position  should  be  an 
incident  and  not  the  aim  of  the  citizen ;  it  should 
be  not  an  cud,  but  the  means  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  a  purpose. — IVilliaiii  Jennings  Bryan,  as 
reported  in  the  Nezv  York  Sun. 

Here  we  have  a  sentence  that  few  per- 
sons would  pause  to  find  fault  with,  yet  if 
we  look  at  it  closely,  we  find  it  very  vul- 
nerable. We  mend  it.  in  part,  by  changing 
for  the  accoinplislnnciit  of  to  to  accoinplisJi, 
and  we  mend  it  wholly  (?)  by  rewriting  it 
thus:  "  The  holding  of  public  office  should 
be  an  incident,  not  an  aim;  it  should  be  not 
an  end,  but  the  means  to  attain  an  end." 

The  words  of  the  citizen  are  worse  than 
useless,  and  the  using  of  pnrpose  instead  of 
re-using  end  is  weakening,  hence  a  dictional 
error.  Accomplish  an  end  might  be  allowed 
to  pass  unchallenged,  though  it  is  question- 
able idiom.  We  accomplish  a  purpose,  at- 
tain an  end,  and  compass  an  object. 

Much  that  we  read,  especially  in  the 
daily  papers,  would  suffer  as  much  from 
close  scrutiny  as  does  this  sentence. 


THE  NEW  YORK  SUN'S  SPECIAL 
ABHORRENCE 

Says  the  New  York  Sun:  "  Constant  at- 
tention is  the  price  of  good  English.  There 
is  one  error  that  constantly  appears  in  spite 
of  all  castigation.  It  is  a  sort  of  phrase- 
ology that  is  exceedingly  vicious.  The  in- 
fernal ingenuity  of  the  reporters  contrives 
to  frame  a  sentence  in  which  there  are  two 
nominati\-es  and  only  one  verb." 

This  locution  that  is  The  Sun's  special 
abhorrence  might  be  called  the  he-was- 
given-an-ovation  locution. 

Has  this  double-headed  barbarian  come 
to  stay?  It  looks  that  way,  though  more 
offensive  no  locution  easily  could  be. 
Whether  infernal,  as  The  Sun  intimates, 
or  not,  it's  a  pity  The  Infernal  does  not 
take  it. 

This  story  zvas  given  a  place  of  honor  in  the 
Brooklyn  Eagle,  and  was  extensively  copied  in 
different  papers  throughout  the  country.     In  each 

58 


THE  NEW  YORK  SUN'S  ABHORRENCE 


59 


[every]  case  the  proper  credit  was  given  to  the 
authors. — New  York  Dramatic  Mirror. 

Something  like  this  is,  probably,  what 
The  Mirror  intended  to  say:  The  Brooklyn 
Eagle  gave  the  story  a  place  of  honor,  and 
it  was  extensively  copied. 


The   sailor   is  given   the   tight   in   the   eighth 
round. — Head  line  of  a  New  York  paper. 

This  probably  means:  The  fight  is  given 
to  the  sailor  in  the  eighth  roimd. 


ReHgious  intolerance  ceased  and  Christian 
missionaries  were  given  freedom  of  action,  and 
the  Jews  were  allowed  to  build  a  second  syna- 
gogue.— The  Literary  Digest. 


If  this  is  all  that  is  done,  if  American  manu- 
facturers are  placed  simply  on  equal  conditions 
with  foreign  manufacturers  instead  of  being  given 
an  advantage  over  them  [an  advantage  being 
given  them]  at  the  expense  of  the  consumers, 
there  would  be,  we  imagine,  small  disposition  to 
keep  the  question  in  the  realm  of  party  politics. 
— New  York  Voice. 

An  old  Irish  laborer  walked  into  the  luxurious 
studio  of  an  artist,  a  few  days  ago,  and  asked  for 
money  to  obtain  a  meal.  He  was  given  a  trifle 
and  departed.— Tid-Bits. 


6o  SOME   ILL-USED   WORDS 

The  history  of  his  struggles  is  celebrated.  As- 
suredly the  victory  will  rcM:iain  with  him.  At  the 
last  debate  he  zvas  refused  a  cniiscr  squadron. — 
Nczv  York  Snii. 


In  the  first  place,  you  are  given  a  home,  lu.xu- 
riously  and  more  or  less  beautifully  and  expen- 
sively furnished,  where  real  estate  is  highest. 
Yon  are  given  every  comfort  and  convenience. — 
Home  Journal. 

She  borrowed  money  and  went  into  a  business 
which  she  carried  to  a  splendidly  successful  com- 
pletion, and  when  her  second  daughter  became  an 
invalid  she  zvas  given  every  luxury  and  tender 
care  that  money  and  affection  could  supply,  while 
a  comfortable  home  was  established  for  the  so- 
called  "  Man." 


Most  of  the  Cubans  who  were  identified  with 
the  revolutionary  movement  against  Spain  are  bit- 
terly opposed  to  annexation  by  the  United  States, 
and  if  they  are  not  given  independence  they  will 
make  trouble  for  those  who  undertake  to  thwart 
their  aspirations. 

One  evening,  just  as  the  farmer  had  finished 
his  chores,  a  fine-looking  man  in  clerical  garb 
drove  up  to  the  house  in  a  buggy.  He  requested 
shelter  for  the  night,  and  was  given  the  best  room 
in  the  house. 


THE  NEW   YORK  SUN'S  ABHORRENCE    6 1 

When  he  had  finished  he  thanked  the  court 
and,  still  tapping  his  cane  on  the  floor,  keeping 
time  with  his  step,  left  the  room.  The  result 
was  that  on  that  day  /  zvas  given  a  judgment  for 

$22,000. 

When  an  Evening  Telegram  reporter  saw 
young  Kiely  in  the  prison  he  complained  bitterly 
that  he  zvas  being  given  a  "  dirty  deal." 

Did  Kiely  say  to  the  reporter,  "  I  am 
being  given  a  dirty  deal?  " 


In  a  short  three  years  under  Republican  pro- 
tection they  have  been  given  more  general  em- 
ployment and  at  higher  wages  than  ever  before. 


Jerry,  soon  after  his  return  from  the  war,  was 
given  a  minor  position  in  the  bank,  and  being  a 
clever,  well-educated  fellow  he  rapidly  advanced 
until  he  was  made  paying  teller. 


One  of  the  men  gave  him  some  meat  and 
cheese  and  the  alligator  ate  it  out  of  his  hands. 
As  soon  as  he  was  given  the  food  he  returned  to 
the  water. 

It  isn't  because  there  are  not  able,  respectable, 
patriotic,  and  brilliant  Americans  in  Mr.  Bryan's 
parties  that  they  shoidd  be  refused  power  now, 
but  because  they  have  no  business  policy  upon 
which  they  can  agree  as  a  unit. 


62  SO^fE  ILL-USED^JVOA'DS 

Tlic  medal  is  a  fitting  token  of  the  nation's 
appreciation  of  such  a  deed.  The  hero  will  soon 
leatl  to  the  altar  a  beautiful  l)ride,  and  among  all 
the  wedding  presents  that  will  be  received  this 
golden  tribute  to  the  husband's  valor  should  be 
given  a  place  of  honor. 


Forrest  zvas  given  a  negro  "  song  and  dance 
act "  to  do  when  he  was  very  young,  and  after 
he  had  studied  it  up  he  asked  where  was  the  "  old 
negro  lady  "  that  was  to  act  as  his  assistant  in  the 
piece. 

But  the  laboring  man  is  even  more  interested 
in  the  proposition  \  proposal]  to  establish  a  labor 
bureau  with  a  Cabinet  officer  at  its  head.  Such  a 
bureau  would  keep  the  Executive  in  constant 
touch  with  the  wage-earners  of  the  country,  and 
open  the  way  to  redress  their  present  and  future 
grievances.  //  labor  is  given  a  place  in  the  Presi- 
dent's official  household,  the  man  selected  will 
necessarily  be  a  worthy  and  trusted  representa- 
tive of  the  people. 

They  zvere  given  a  great  send-off  as  they  left 
the  grounds. 

Will  Mr.  Bryan  denounce  his  party  associates 
in  Congress  who  voted  on  June  ist  last  that  the 
National  Government  should  not  be  given  the 
power  to  control  trusts? 


THE  NEW   YORK  SUN'S  ABHORRENCE    63 

"  No  sooner  was  this  done,"  continued  the 
story-teller,  "  than  a  great  uproar  of  protests 
arose  from  the  group  in  the  corner.  They  in- 
sisted that  ihcy  had  been  given  no  chance  to  bid, 
but  the  auctioneer  stood  firm." 


He  was  given  the  control  of  the  third  military 
district. 

He  was  given  a  life  interest  in  the  estate. 


/  was  given  one  of  the  copies. 

Examples  in  the  first  person  are  com- 
paratively rare.       

The  nations  should  be  given  warning. — Gov- 
ernor Budd. 


With   us  ministers,   zve  are  constantly  given 
occasion  [an  opportunity?]  to  study  character 


Among  the  questions  discussed  at  a  ses- 
sion of  the  University  of  the  State  of  New 
York  this  was  one: 

Should  the  A.  M.  degree  be  abandoned,  or 
given  a  distinct  pedagogic  significance  f 

"  What  should  be  done."  asked  the  New 
York  Sun,  "  when  the  chiefs  of  a  university 


64  SOME   ILL-USED   WORDS 

show  siicli  dreadful  ignorance  of  llic  Knt^- 
lish  lani;"iiai;"e?  "     

For  every  scratch  /  Jiavc  been  given  he  has 
two  scars. 

He  zvas  convicted,  and  was  given  a  sentence 
of  twenty  years.         

He  had  been  refused  her  hand. 


While  in  prison,  he  zvas  given  a  position  in 
the  \\'arden's  office,  and  was  granted  many  privi- 
leges. On  account  of  his  j^ood  behavior,  he  zvas 
given  credit,  and  in  1888  had  but  three  years  more 
to  serve.  

Going  on  to  New  York,  flie  committee  were 
[was]  given  a  great  and  enthusiastic  meeting  at 
Cooper  Union.  

He  caused  astonishment  by  offering  to  pay  the 
other  $4,000  at  once  provided  he  was  granted  five 
per  cent  discount.      

"  I  am  not  ruled  off,"  he  said.  "  The  de- 
spatches merely  say  that  /  will  [shall]  be  refused 
a  license."  

It  is  enough  to  say  concerning  my  youth  that 
I  was  raised   [reared]   on  a  farm  and  was  ac- 


THE  NEW  YORK  SUN'S  ABHORRENCE    65 

counted  a  pretty  weedy  crop.  The  cockleburrs 
and  crab-grass  seemed  to  spring  up  all  the  more 
prolific  after  /  had  been  given  a  good  thrashing. 

After  a  good  thrashing  had  been  given 
I.  Turning  it  around  a  bit  doesn't  mend  it. 
Offensive  as  this  locution  is,  it,  now  and 
then,  gets  into  some  weh-written  books. 


FORMER  AND  LATTER 

These  two  words,  the  pronouns,  and  all 
other  words  that  send  the  reader  back  to  an 
antecedent,  should  be  used  as  sparingly  as 
possible. 

Nine  times  in  ten.  at  the  least,  when  tJic 
former  or  tJie  latter  is  used,  it  would  be  better 
to  repeat  the  noun. 

Mr.  Aldrich,  Mr.  Morill.  and  Mr.  Gear  were 
formerly  merchants,  but  the  former  [Mr.  Aldrich] 
is  now  the  manager  of  the  street-car  interests  in 
Rhode  Island. — W.  E.  Curtis. 

The  words  former  and  latter  are  properly- 
used  only  when  it  is  a  question  of  two. 
Commonly,  it  is  better  not  to  use  them  at 
all.  The  reader  always  has  to  go  back  to 
see  which  is  which. 


For  illustration,  n  is  classed  lingual,  when  in 
truth  it  is  lingual-nasal,  with  a  deal  more  of  the 
latter  [nasal]  than  [of]  the  former  [lingual]. — 
Professor  R.  E.  Mayne. 


FORMER   AND   LA  TTER  67 

Letters  passed  back  and  forth  between  Mc- 
Comb  and  Ames,  in  one  of  which  the  latter 
[Ames],  a  plain,  outspoken  man,  declared  that  he 
had  placed  the  stock  with  influential  gentlemen. — 
New  York  Sun.  

All  communications  between  Wagner  and  Bii- 
low  naturally  ceased,  and  the  latter  [Biilow] 
began  his  period  of  Wanderleben. 


These  tablets  consisted  partly  of  contracts  and 
other  legal  documents,  partly  of  public  and  pri- 
vate letters.  The  latter  [letters]  have  just  been 
carefully  arranged,  and  for  the  first  time  their  full 
importance  is  evident. 


Mr.  W.  D.  Howells,  who  for  many  years  was 
a  close  friend  of  James  Russell  Lowell,  includes 
in  his  reminiscences  of  the  New  England  poet 
and  critic  in  Scribner's  Magazine  (September) 
some  interesting  statements  as  to  the  latter  s 
[Lowell's]  attitude  toward  religion. 


In  these  cartoons  all  foreigners  are  repre- 
sented as  goats  and  all  Christians  as  pigs.  The 
predominance  of  the  latter  [pigs]  in  most  of  the 
cartoons  throws  some  light  on  the  question  as  to 
how  far  a  hatred  of  the  missionaries,  rather  than 
of  foreigners  in  general,  is  responsible  for  the 
present  outbreak. 


68  SOME   ILL-USED   WORDS 

\'ictor  Emmanuel  II  and  his  son  Humbert  I 
were  both  men  of  strong  and  ineradicable  attach- 
ment to  the  church,  and  the  usurpation  of  the 
Pope's  temporal  domain  by  the  former  [Victor 
Emmanuel]  and  the  continuance  in  possession  by 
the  latter  [Humbert]  were,  it  has  been  proved  by 
repeated  incidents,  the  source  o-f  continual  heart- 
burnings to  them. 

The  present  generation  is  distinctly  an  eater 
of  sweets,  not  of  fats ;  but  while  the  former 
[sweets]  supply  the  heat  that  would  be  obtained 
from  the  fats,  they  do  not  supply  certain  lubricant 
qualities  zvhich  [that]  are  so  important  for  the 
proper  performance  of  the  intestinal  functions. 


One  Esquimau  for  the  management  of  [to 
manage]  the  dogs,  of  which  there  were  120.  The 
latter  [dogs]  were  fed  on  a  "  pemmican,"  made  of 
horse  meat  and  flour. 

If  William  III  and  his  consort.  Queen  Mary, 
daughter  of  James  II,  had  had  a  son,  the  latter 
[son]  would  have  become  not  only  King  of  Eng- 
land, but  Stadtholder  of  the  Netherlands. 


The  woman  was  soon  in  tears,  which  gave 
way  later  to  anger.  She  scolded  her  father-in-law 
and  her  youthful  husband  and  defied  the  former 
[father-in-law]  to  take  the  latter  [husband]  away 
from  her. 


FORMER  AND   LATTER  69 

Mr.  Henley  says  that  had  Rossetti  and  Byron 
been  contemporaries,  some  of  the  former's  [Ros- 
setti's]  verses  would  have  had  the  proud  distinc- 
tion of  making  the  author  of  Don  Juan  blush. 


On  November  25th,  the  seals  were  taken  from 
du  Vaire  and  given  to  Mangot.  At  the  same  time 
the  secretaryship  of  state  held  by  the  latter  [Man- 
got]  was  given  to  Richelieu. 


Richelieu  hoped  by  depriving  Gaston  of  his 
refuge  to  induce  him  to  a  reconciliation,  but  the 
latter  [Gaston]  was  persuaded  by  his  chief  ad- 
viser to  withdraw  to  Brussels. 


British  and  Russians  clash.     Railway  interests 
of  the  former  [British]  believed  to  be  in  danger. 


The  portents  of  war  between  England  and 
France  are  looming  large  upon  the  horizon,  and 
the  former  Power  [England]  has  just  determined 
upon  a  step  zvhich  [that]  shows  that  she  is  ready 
to  make  the  best  of  her  opportunities  on  this 
quarter  of  the  globe. 

Albeit  there  are  numerous  [many]  thrifty 
souls  that  find  a  bank  in  hens  and  eggs  and  coax 
the  former  [hens]  by  many  ingenious  and  suc- 
cessful devices  to  produce  the  latter  [eggs]  in 
quantities  to  suit. 


70  SOME   ILL- USED   WORDS 

Soon  after  his  return  to  the  United  States 
Jones  became  involved  in  a  controversy  with 
Arthur  Lee,  and  he  did  not  hesitate  to  charge 
the  latter  [Lee]  with  having  betrayed  our  most 
secret  policy  to  our  arch  enemy,  Great  Britain. 


Lord  Salisbury  then  made  a  veiled  thrust  at 
the  Commander-in-Chief,  Lord  Wolscley,  because 
of  the  recent  speech  in  which  the  latter  [Wolse- 
ley]  placed  most  of  the  responsibility  for  the 
shortcomings  of  the  army  on  the  War  Office. 


There  is  no  need  to  assume  that  there  is  any 
disagreement  between  him  and  the  Emperor.  The 
latter  [Emperor],  as  the  world  knows,  has  been 
for  years  his  own  Chancellor,  and  there  is  no 
evidence  that  Prince  Hohenlohe  ever  challenged 
or  wished  to  challenge  his  Majesty's  authority. 


There  is  no  love  lost  between  the  Coreans  and 
the  Japanese.  On  the  side  of  the  latter  [Jap- 
anese] the  feeling  is  one  of  contempt,  and  the 
hatred  of  the  Coreans  is  justified  by  the  treatment 
they  have  received  from  Japanese  adventurers 
and  speculators.  In  case  of  a  clash  between  Rus- 
sia and  Japan  the  Coreans  would  probably  side 
with  the  former  [Russia]. 


The  Cherries,  as  they  are  known  throughout 
Ohio,  are  the  daughters  of  a  farmer  who  died 
some  time  ago.  leaving  them  a  farm  covered  with 
clay,  on  top  of  which  rested  a  nice  thick  mort- 


FORMER  AND  LATTER 


n 


gage.  In  order  to  lift  the  latter  [mortgage]  so 
that  they  might  till  the  former  [farm]  the  girls 
started  out  as  a  "  troupe  "  to  give  entertainments 
in  the  Iowa  towns. 

The  easier  we  make  it  for  the  reader  to 
get  our  thought  the  better  is  our  diction. 


Their  present  population  does  not  fall  short 
of  30,000,000,  more  than  two  thirds  of  which  are 
in  Java.  If  the  administrative  methods  followed 
so  successfully  in  the  last-named  island  [Java] 
were  to  be  applied  to  all  the  Dutch  East  Indies, 
these  would  easily  sustain  100,000,000  of  inhab- 
itants.   

The  Marquis  de  Noailles,  the  French  Ambas- 
sador to  Germany,  called  on  Imperial  Chancellor 
von  Billow  to-day.  The  latter  [Von  Biilow]  as- 
sured the  representative  of  France  [Marquis]  that 
the  Anglo-German  agreement  in  regard  to  China 
was  [is]  merely  in  regard  to  commerce. 


Three  days  later  a  rumor  got  abroad  that 
D'Esterre  was  going  to  horsewhip  O'Connell,  and 
the  former  [D'Esterre]  actually  appeared  in  the 
Four  Courts  with  a  whip  in  his  hand,  but  failed 
to  find  the  latter  [O'Connell]. 


Subsequently  she  sang  for  a  period  of  seven 
months  at  Geneva,  was  heard  also  in  Nice,  Mar- 
seilles, Cairo,  Monte  Carlo,  and  Bordeaux,  and 
was  invited  by  Sonsogne  to  sing  in   Milan  and 


'J2  SOME  ILL-USED   WORDS 

Genoa.     In  the  last-iuiiiicd  city  [Genoa]   slic  ap- 
peared as  the  heroine  of  Massenet's  Le  Cid. 


In  the  controversy  between  Max  Miiller  and 
the  late  Professor  Whitney  of  Yale  University  it 
is  generally  admitted  that  the  former  [Miiller] 
was  worsted. 

His  story  is  that  Captain  Herlihy  called  him 
a  liar  and  that  he  then  went  to  see  Inspector 
Cross.  When  he  got  to  the  latter's  [Inspector's] 
office,  he  says,  he  found  Captain  Herlihy  already 
there. 

Mr.  Walton  next  proceeded  to  Li  Hung 
Chang's  private  residence,  where  he  found  one 
of  the  latter's  [Li's]  private  secretaries,  Mr. 
Pethick,  an  American,  who  had  arranged  the  in- 
terview. 


If  one  citizen  may  properly  withhold  his  vote, 
logically  all  may,  while  to  decline  voting  [to  vote] 
because  practically  assured  that  others  will  vote, 
is  to  give  to  the  latter  [others]  an  undue  share  of 
political  power  and  to  forfeit  the  right  to  com- 
plain of  any  abuse  of  //  [power]. 


The  country  lying  between  Daiquiri  and  Si- 
boney,  and  between  the  latter  place  [Siboney]  and 
Santiago,  was  marvellously  adapted  for  a  stub- 
born defence. 


FORMER  AND  LATTER 


73 


Both  leader  and  subleader  resisted  arrest,  the 
former  [leader]  fighting  his  way  clear  to  the 
station-house. 


Mr.  Perkins  is  convinced,  that,  had  Father 
Joseph  survived  Richelieu,  the  former  [Joseph] 
would  have  succeeded  the  latter  [Richelieu]  in 
his  position  at  the  head  of  affairs  in  France. 


The  accident  occurred  while  the  train  was 
running  from  Tuxedo  to  Paterson.  It  left  the 
former  place  [Tuxedo]  at  3.48  o'clock  and  was 
due  at  Paterson  at  4.21. 


The  Magdeburg  correspondent  of  the  Gazette 
telegraphs  an  interview  with  a  Japanese  diplomat, 
in  which  the  latter  [diplomat]  says  that  Japan 
has  not  assumed  Russia's  attitude  toward  China. 


The  quarrel  between  the  Mayor  and  [the] 
Bishop  this  morning  puts  the  latter  [Bishop]  in 
the  background.  The  clergymen,  however,  are 
likely  to  form  an  organization.  Many  of  them 
have  announced  that  they  will  [shall]  preach  on 
the  subject  to-morrow. 


The  two  young  women  convicted  of  carrying 
on  this  particular  swindle  were  sisters,  Catherine 
and  Marian  M.  The  former  [Catherine]  is 
twenty-two  and  the  latter  [Marian]   twenty. 


74 


SOME  ILL-USED   WORDS 


Eugene  Field  and  the  fanner.  Having  killed 
the  latter  s  [farmer's]  duck,  the  poet  presented  his 
view  of  the  matter. 


The  Brooklyn  policeman  ivho  [that]  clubbed 
his  own  roundsman  when  the  latter  [roundsman] 
remonstrated  with  him  for  being  in  a  saloon  while 
on  post,  is  a  nice  sort  of  individual  [person]  to 
look  after  the  safety  of  the  public. 


There  is  a  distinction  to  be  drawn  between 
the  rights  of  a  master  in  his  home  and  his  rights 
in  his  public  store.  In  the  latter  case  [store] 
there  is  an  implied  invitation  to  the  general  public 
to  come  in,  and  a  person  entering  such  an  estab- 
lishment has  greater  privileges,  and,  consequently, 
the  master  less  rights. 


Learning  that  his  visitor  had  [had]  an  audi- 
ence with  Prince  Ching  at  Pekin,  he  pertinently 
asked  whether  Jung-lu  had  been  [was]  present, 
adding  that  the  latter  [Jung-lu]  was  Prime  Min- 
ister and  Generalissimo  of  the  Chinese  Army. 


A  harpy  eagle  could  carry  ofif  a  small  baby 
and  the  golden  eagle  can  carry  off  a  small  fawn 
or  a  kid  or  a  wild  turkey,  and  does  it  when  op- 
portunity offers.  The  latter  [golden  eagle]  some- 
times weighs  twelve  pounds  and  has  an  expanse 
of  wing  of  seven  feet  and  a  half. 


FORMER  AND  LATTER 


75 


A  student  may  be  admitted  without  any  knowl- 
edge of  either  Greek  or  Latin,  but  he  must  offer 
French  or  German  as  a  substitute  for  the  latter 
language  [Latin]. 


Here  is  the  syllogism :  The  cases  of  China  and 
the  Philippines  are  identical.  In  the  former 
[China]  the  President  has  pursued  the  only  policy 
which  [that]  is  right.  In  the  latter  [Philippines] 
he  has  pursued  a  different  policy,  and  it  therefore 
must  be  wronsf. 


A  conductor  who  [that]  is  not  afraid  to  per- 
form [do]  his  duty  will  remove  the  obstructing 
baggage  if  the  owner  refuses  to  do  so  [remove  it]. 
But,  should  the  conductor  lack  the  will  or  the 
nerve  to  protect  the  traveller  in  his  rights,  the 
latter  [traveller]  will  have  the  sympathy  of  his 
fellow-travellers  if  he  removes  the  obstructor's  be- 
longings. 


Watts — The  more  I  think  of  that  fcllozv  [fel- 
low's] murdering  another  over  fifteen  cents,  the 
more  awful  it  seems.  Fancy  a  human  life  lost 
for  fifteen  cents  ! 

Potts — I  see  nothing  in  it.  In  the  first  place, 
the  affair  occurred  in  Kentucky,  and  in  the  second 
place,  the  money  was  part  of  a  jackpot.  There 
are  things  in  that  State  [Kentucky]  more  sacred 
than  life. 


^6  SOAff.    ILL-USED    IfORDS 

On  the  whole,  then,  Mr.  Bryan,  in  spite  of 
inferior  intellectuality,  would  wear  better  as  a 
leader  than  Mr.  Towne.  When  the  latter 
[Towne]  was  rejected  at  Kansas  City,  it  was  a 
protest  against  nominating  a  Republican  on  a 
Democratic  ticket. 


It  must  be  a  government  of  intelligence  as  well 
as  one  of  honesty.  An  ignorant,  incompetent 
honest  man  in  an  important  office  is  likely  to  do 
more  permanent  harm  than  a  rascal  ivho  [that] 
is  intelligent  and  progressive.  The  latter  [rascal] 
may  steal  some  money,  but  the  former  [honest 
ignoramus]  may  mar  or  destroy  a  park  or  boule- 
vard or  construct  an  eyesore  of  brick  and  stone 
where  there  should  be  an  artistic  public  edifice. 


The  one  should  come  out  or  a  government 
should  be  repeated. 

The  professional  politician  is  usually  disposed 
to  decry  and  ridicule  the  professional  .reformer, 
and  the  latter  [reformer]  can  rarely  see  any  good 
in  the  politician. 

\\nio  will  deny  that  fanner  and  latter  are 
much  overworked?  True,  we  couldn't  get 
along  well  without  them,  but  nine  times  in 
ten  where  now  we  use  them  they  are  not 
needed. 


THE  ANTECEDENT  CON- 
STRUCTION 

Never  choose  any  antecedent  construc- 
tion, if  you  can  well  avoid  it.  The  fewer 
the  antecedents,  the  more  forcible  the  dic- 
tion. 

That  the  American  people  will  express  their 
opinions  in  November,  no  one  knows  better  than 
Chairman  Hanna,  and  hence  the  pressure  that  he 
is  bringing  to  bear  on  the  coal  barons  to  comply 
with  the  miners'  demands  and  put  an  end  to  the 
strike.  He  [Mr.  Hanna]  is  fearful,  and  justly 
so  [fearful],  of  its  [the  strike's]  effect  on  the 
American  mind. 

Eliza  Ruhama  Scidmore,  who  has  written  sev- 
eral books  on  far  Eastern  countries,  reminds  those 
who  are  looking  for  "  the  break-up  of  China  " 
that  China  has  been  "  breaking  up  "  and  "  dying  " 
for  thousands  of  years,  and  will  probably  continue 
to  do  so  [break  up]  for  thousands  of  years  to 
come. 


Well,  he  came  to  Brook  Farm;  and  I  remem- 
ber that  some  of  his  natural  predilections  devel- 

77 


-S  SOME   ILL-USED   WORDS 

oped  themselves  there  as  they  had  not  before  been 
able  to  do  [develop]. — Charles  A.  Dana. 


Under  [in]  these  circnnistanees  the  patriotic 
citizen  has  to  consider  this  fall  whether  the  pnblic 
interests  are  to  be  better  advanced  by  maintain- 
ing in  power  the  present  administration  with  all 
its  shortcomings  or  by  providing  a  wholly  un- 
tried one  [administration]. 


We  zvill  [shall]  not  all  share  alike,  but  some- 
thing each  one  of  us  will  get.  Let  us  strive  to 
make  the  conditions  of  life  such  that  as  nearly 
as  possible  each  man  shall  receive  the  share  to 
which  he  is  honestly  entitled  [he  is  honestly  en- 
titled to]  and  no  more ;  and  let  us  remember  at 
the  same  time  that  our  efforts  must  be  to  build 
up,  rather  than  to  strike  down,  and  that  we  can 
best  help  ourselves,  not  at  the  expense  of  others, 
but  by  heartily  working  with  them  [others]  for 
the  common  cfood  of  each  and  all. 


In  this  the  Duke  of  Reichstadt  dies  a  la 
Camille,  but  before  he  does  so  [dies]  he  receives, 
so  says  the  playbook,  the  "  last  sacraments." 


This  is  the  last  Thanksgiving  of  the  century. 
That  in  itself  is  not  a  matter  to  be  joyous  over, 
for  it  reminds  us  that  we  are  getting  along.  But 
it  has  been  a  very  fine  century  for  this  country. 


THE  ANTECEDENT  CONSTRUCTION    yg 

And  the  indications  are  that  the  next  one  [cen- 
tury] will  be  more  so  [still  finer  for  the  country]. 


That  is  not  the  danger.  They  know  that  if  I 
am  elected  I  will  put  the  same  kind  of  striped 
clothes  on  a  big  thief  that  are  put  on  a  little 
one  [thief]. 

Is  woman  less  or  more  intelligent  than  man? 
Less  so  [intelligent],  decidedly,  says  Professor 
Paolo  Mantegazza. 

We  have  no  record  of  the  part  played  by 
Richelieu  in  the  preceding  debates,  but  that  it 
must  have  been  a  distinguished  one  [part]  is 
proved  by  the  fact 


Somewhat  careless  of  the  smaller  moralities, 
still  more  so  [careless]  of  his  own  reputation. 


The  days  following  were  ones  [days]  of  ter- 
rible suspense  at  [in]  Washington. 


In  discussing  the  South  African  crisis  in  the 
Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  several  months  ago,  a 
Dutch  writer,  a  member  of  the  States-General  of 
the  Netherlands,  makes  some  remarks  on  im- 
perialism which  [that]  are  very  striking,  the 
more  so   [striking],  perhaps,  because  the  writer 


8o  SOME   ILL-USED   WORDS 

seems  to  have  a  genuine  admiration  for  tlic  Rrit- 
'  ish  people. 

It  is  to  he  ohserved  that  while  the  South  Afri- 
can republics  made  like  requests  of  other  Powers 
the  United  States  is  the  only  one  zvhich  [Power 
that]  complied. 

It  is  noticed  that  the  Eastern  cities  are  now 
growing  about  as  fast  as  the  Western  ones 
[cities],  while  the  cities  of  the  South  are  lagging 
somewhat. 


He  observes,  with  an  eye  on  Messrs.  Carlisle, 
Peabody,  Dickinson,  Morton,  Eckels,  and  others, 
that  "  those  men  zvho  [that]  clamor  for  reorgani- 
zation after  defeat  are  the  very  ones  zvho  [men 
that]  contribute  to  the  defeat." 


But  while  we  recognize  the  perils  of  the  pres- 
ent and  are  bound  to  do  our  duty  in  meeting  them, 
the  perils  through  which  we  have  passed  in  safety 
both  give  ground  for  hope  that  the  present  ones 
[perils]  will  eventually  be  surmounted. 


The  campaign  four  years  ago  was  notable  for 
its  changes  in  the  political  alinement  of  State  and 
national  leaders.  The  campaign  this  year  has 
not  furnished  as  yet  nearly  as  [so]  large  a  num- 
ber of  surprises,  but  it  has  not  been  devoid  of 
them  [surprises]  by  any  manner  of  means. 


THE   ANTECEDENT  CONSTRUCTION    8l 

I  think  there  will  be  found  a  strange  coinci- 
dence in  the  range  of  their  ages,  which  may  ap- 
pear to,  at  least  [at  least  to],  favor  a  more  natu- 
ral theory  as  explanation  than  the  constant  and 
almost  wearisome  one  [theory]  of  the  epileptic 
possession  or  influence. 


The  Bulgarian  agitation — to  a  large  extent  a 
sham  otie  [agitation] — for  the  "  redemption,"  as 
it  is  called,  of  Macedonia,  is  a  safety-valve  that 
relieves  Prince  Ferdinand  from  much  unpleasant 
criticism. 


She  had  mistaken  a  desire  to  act  for  the  ability 
to  do  it  [act]. — Nczv  York  Sun. 


The  Kentucky  is  a  sister  ship  of  the  Kearsarge 
and  was  built  at  Newport  News.  These  ships  are 
the  only  ones  [ships]  in  any  navy  equipped  with 
superimposed  turrets.  On  top  of  the  turrets  for 
the  13-inch  guns  are  placed  smaller  ones  [turrets] 
containinsf  the  four  8-inch  sfuns. 


This  boot  is  much  lighter  and  more  flexible 
than  ordinary  ones  [boots]. 


But  beside  this,  there  are  other  questions  you 
have  to  consider  as  important,  and  even  more  so 
[important],  than  the  demand  for  [the]  unlimited 
coinage  [coining]  of  silver. 
6 


82  SOME   ILL-USED    WORDS 

The  coming  test  of  the  silver  question  at  tlie 
polls  must,  in  all  human  prohal)ility.  I)e  the  tinal 
one  [test J. 

The  city  authorities  are  anxious  [desirous]  to 
proceed  with  this  work,  but  inform  us  that  they 
can  not  do  so  [proceed]  until  they  are  in  a  posi- 
tion to  make  contracts  for  the  interior  work. 


I  hate  a  "  coward,"  especially  a  dishonest  one 
[coward].  This  man  Sulzer  at  least  has  the 
courage  to  tell  the  truth,  and  if  I  lived  in  his  dis- 
trict I  zcould  [should]  vote  for  him. 


This  is  not  the  language  of  statesmanship,  but 
rather  that  [the  language]  of  a  candidate  who  is 
not  very  particular  what  he  says  if  it  will  bring 
him  the  support  of  unthinking  voters. 


As  to  trusts,  he  declares  that  "  if  the  present 
law  can  be  extended  more  certainly  to  control  or 
check  these  monopolies  or  trusts,  it  should  be 
done  [extended]  without  delay." 


The  Know  Nothing  party  showed  that  there 
was  dissatisfaction  in  the  North  with  existing 
political  organizations  and  that  a  new  one  [or- 
ganization] was  needed. 


The  subtlety  of  his  character  was  perhaps  in- 
dispensable in  the  atmosphere  of  deceit  and  plots 


THE  ANTECEDENT  CONSTRUCTION 


83 


amid  which  he  lived,  but,  while  cunning  may  be 
a  serviceable  quality,  it  is  not  an  [a]  heroic  one 
[quality]. 

The  peace  of  1783  was  a  calamitous  one 
[peace]  for  England,  and  yet  it  was  only  with 
difficulty  obtained. — New  York  Sun. 

This  sentence  would  be  further  bettered 
by  changing  the  position  of  the  words  thus: 
Was  obtained  only  with  difficulty.  This 
puts  the  most  emphatic  word  at  the  end  of 
the  sentence,  besides  keeping  the  parts  of 
the  verb  together. 


Two  nights  ago,  on  top  of  all  the  hullabaloo 
that  landed  him  in  Eldridge  Street,  a  tramp 
through  his  precinct  and  the  two  adjoining  ones 
[precincts],  those  in  Fifth  Street  and  Union 
Market,  at  2  a.  m.,  discovered  just  one  police- 
man on  post. 

The  political  objections  to  Oriental  labor  are 
scarcely  less  weighty  than  the  economic  ones  [ob- 
jections]. 

Blanche  Walsh  has  a  spell  of  polished  comedy 
and  one  [a  spell]  of  rough  melodrama  in  Mar- 
celle.  For  the  former  [comedy]  her  stately  beauty 
is  displayed  in  a  pompadour  toilet  of  a  fine  lady 


S4  SOME   ILL-USED   WORDS 

of  a   century   aiul   a   half  aji^o  in   Quebec,   when 
French  fasliions  prevailed  in  that  city. 


Our  industrial  and  agricultural  conditions  are 
more  promising  than  they  have  been  for  many 
years;  probably  more  so  [promising]  than  they 
have  ever  been  [before]. 


The  American  matron  is  just  as  powerful,  and 
a  good  deal  more  so  [powerful],  than  the  cele- 
brated Mrs.  Grundv. 


Colonel  Fellows's  condition  to-day  is  very 
grave,  more  so  [graver]  than  last  night  or  yester- 
day. There  are  serious  doubts  of  his  recovery. 
— New  York  Evening  Sun. 


Headache  is  also  very  prevalent,  but  for  this 
they  have  a  remedy,  or  what  they  allege  to  be 
one  [a  remedy]. 

No  one  in  official  circles  here  has  believed  that 
Russia  w'ould  insist  on  withdrawing  from  Pekin 
if  the  other  Powers  refused  to  do  so  [withdraw]. 


Then  there  would  be  a  battle  royal  between 
the  various  strong  tribes  to  subdue  the  weaker 
ones  [tribes],  then  a  fierce  row  to  see  who  zvould 
[should]  come  out  on  top. 


THE  ANTECEDENT  CONSTRUCTION    85 

The  British  Museum,  in  its  manuscript  depart- 
ment, has  an  unrivalled  collection  of  letters  of 
celebrities,  and  by  far  the  most  valuable  one  [col- 
lection] in  existence.  In  1895  they  commenced 
[began]  publishing  a  series  of  specimens  of  the 
handwritings  of  royal,  historical,  literary,  and 
other  eminent  persons. 


The  tone  of  the  leading  Republican  papers  in- 
duces us  to  believe  that  the  policy  of  the  White 
House  is  to  maintain  American  interests  in  op- 
position to  European  ones  [interests]  in  various 
parts  of  the  world  more  steadily  than  hitherto. 


Even  after  the  triumphs  of  the  courts  of  law 
had  yielded  to  the  greater  ones  [triumphs]  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  the  title  of  "  counsellor " 
ever  remained  his  favorite  appellation  with  the 
Irish  peasantry. 

Remember  all  the  terrible  things  you  said  were 
going  to  happen  if  you  were  not  elected  in  1896. 
It  was  money  in  my  pocket  to  have  you  beaten 
then.  It  will  be  money  in  my  pocket  to  have  you 
beaten  next  November,  and  I'm  going  to  help  do  it 
[beat  you]. 

The  country  is  still  prosperous  and  will  re- 
main so  [prosperous]  under  Republican  manage- 
ment. 


86  SOAfE  ILL-USED   WORDS 

"  I  know  something  I  won't  tell,"  sang  the 
widow  boarder's  little  girl,  as  little  girls  have 
done  [sung]  ever  since  language  was  invented. 


It  is  a  real  pity,  as  much  so  [as  great  a  pity] 
as  would  be  the  destruction  of  the  beautiful  flow- 
ers which  [that]  everywhere  distil  their  perfumes 
on  the  slumbrous  air. — Nezv  York  Sun. 


And  it  would  not  if  there  were  not  plenty  of 
persons  zcho  hod  (that  have]  read  it,  as  well  as 
many  more  zvho  [that]  may  be  expected  to  do  so 
[read  it]. 


I  wish  I  knew  as  much  about  anything  as 
Tom  Macaulay  does  [knows]  about  everything — 
meaning,  of  course,  everything  historical. 


Can  you  pick  out  a  man  whose  moral  fibre  is 
any  stronger,  or  is  likely  to  be  made  so  [stronger], 
by  the  fact  that  McKinley  was  [has  been]  elected  ? 
Or  one  whose  moral  fibre  would  have  been  made 
so  [stronger]  had  Bryan  been  elected? 


These  monarchs  behave  very  well  when  at- 
tempts are  made  on  their  lives.  Of  course  it  is 
part  of  their  business  to  do  so  [behave  well].  But 
all  the  same,  the  display  of  professional  spirit  is 
to  be  commended. 


THE  ANTECEDENT  CONSTRUCTION    g/ 

I  agree  with  him,  that  this  will  be  one  of  the 
great  issues  in  this  campaign — aye,  the  paramount 
one  [issue] — upon  which  we  may  hope  to  receive 
the  support  of  Republicans. 


Beyond  doubt  the  present  year  is  a  critical 
one  [year]  for  our  country. 


The  remarkable  character  of  the  wins  made 
by  the  Chicago  man  was  the  wonder  of  the  racing 
world,  and  they  will  become  even  more  so  [won- 
derful] when  it  is  known  that  he  had  not  previ- 
ously raced  horses  in  this  country. 


Unless  the  police  are  willing  to  tell  the  truth, 
or  can  be  compelled  to  do  so  [tell  the  truth],  we 
may  not  be  able,  in  many  cases,  to  produce  legal 
evidence  of  this  state  of  things  that  would  satisfy 
a  grand  jury. 

Representatives  of  fifteen  denominations  pres- 
ent. Theoretical  topics  considered  yesterday. 
Only  practical  ones  [topics]  are  to  be  on  the  pro- 
cframme  from  this  time  out. 


That  objection  of  Mr.  Olney's  may  be  passed 
by.  It  is  an  old  argument,  but  it  was  never  a 
goon  one  [argument],  even  when  it  was  new. 


Some  plays  should  never  have  a  Metropolitan 
"  first  night,"  and  such  a  one  [play]  is  The  Parish 


88  SOME   I  LI. -USED   IVOPDS 

Priest,  which  Daniel  Sully  produced  at  the  Four- 
teenth Street  Theatre  last  week. 


This  policy  is  not  only  patriotic  but  it  is  the 
only  safe  one  [policy]  to  pursue.  Any  other 
policy  would  show  weakness  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States  and  invite  foreign  complications. 


The  most  noteworthy  feature  of  the  coal 
miners'  strike  is  the  familiar  attempt  of  organ- 
ized labor  to  force  all  men  to  leave  work,  whether 
they  want  to  do  so  [leave  work]  or  not. 


I  have  no  more  sympathy  than  he  displays 
with  abstention  from  voting,  a  recognized  method 
of  expressing  political  opinions  undoubtedly,  but 
to  my  mind  a  singularly  ineffective  one  [method]. 


The  ofifice  is  one  of  the  most  attractive  in  the 
Government,  and  was  rendered  doubly  so  [attrac- 
tive] by  the  cordiality  of  your  tender  of  it. — 
Chauncey  M.  Depew. 


In  other  cities  of  England  the  number  of  prin- 
cipal centres,  each  with  subordinate  ones  [cen- 
tres], will  number  from  one  to  six,  according  to 
size. 

My  retirement  dates  from  that  year,  not  from 
this.     Few  men  have  made  more   speeches   for 


THE  ANTECEDENT  CONSTRUCTION 


89 


their  party  than  I  have  done  [made],  and  no  ex- 
President,  I  am  sure,  has  made  so  many. 


Ptomaines  may  be  developed  from  a  variety 
of  foods,  but  the  principal  ones  [foods]  from 
which  the  poisoning  occurs  are  meat,  milk,  shell- 
fish, and  fish. 

When  we  told  them  that  Admiral  Dewey  was 
inclined  to  permit  the  three  to  go  to  Manila  on 
the  collier  Nanshan  if  they  could  give  any  good 
reason  for  so  doing  [going],  they  informed  us 
that  they  did  not  wish  to  go  to  Manila  until 


As  the  number  of  persons  using  open  cars  in 
this  city  is  very  large,  and  as  every  person  travel- 
ling in  that  way  desires  to  occupy  an  end  seat, 
the  question  is  a  very  important  one.  It  is  more 
so  [important]  than  that  involving  the  right  of 
a  passenger  on  a  railroad  car  to  place  his  bag- 
gage in  the  seat  beside  him. 


I  never  indulge  in  personalities.  I  have  re- 
frained from  indulging  in  personalities  through- 
out the  campaign  and  will  [shall]  continue  to 
do  so  [refrain]. 

In  civilized  countries  the  Jewish  kitchen  is, 
after  the  vegetarian  one  [kitchen],  the  most  nar- 
rowly confined  as  far  as  selection  goes.     There, 


90 


SOME  ILL-USED   WORDS 


where  in  all  other  kitchens  the  delicacies  com- 
mence [begin],  the  bill  of  fare  of  the  Jewish 
kitchen  has  already  come  to  an  end. 


Now  there  is  nothing  at  all  humorous  in  any 
of  these  things,  as  such.  Nor  do  they  become 
any  more  so  [humorous]  when  woven  into  the 
texture  of  a  sonjj. 


It  seems  that  no  one  can  go  into  court  to 
prosecute  a  just  claim  or  resist  an  unjust  one 
[claim]  without  having  his  family  skeleton  pro- 
duced and  his  private  life  made  the  subject  of 
public  ridicule. 

I  had  the  good  fortune  to  go  through  South 
Dakota.  There  were  few  victories  that  gave  me 
more  unalloyed  satisfaction  than  the  one  [vic- 
tory] in  that  State. 

In  the  alleged  fraudulent  divorce  suits  which 
[that]  resulted  in  several  indictments  [indict- 
ments'] being  found  by  the  grand  jury,  answers, 
some  of  them  alleged  to  have  been  "  fake  "  ones 
[answers],  were  interposed  and  the  referees  who 
[that]  heard  the  cases  were  imposed  upon. 


These  two  passages  should  be  read  in  the  light 
of  his  declaration  at  Zanesville  on  September 
4th :  "  The  party  stands  where  it  did  [stood]  in 
1896  on  the  money  question." 


THE  ANTECEDENT  CONSTRUCTION    qi 

Mention  is  made  in  the  seventh  century  of  our 
era  by  a  Chinese  traveller  of  a  city  either  on  or 
near  the  site  of  the  present  one  [city],  called 
Tchatch  or  Jadj. 

The  way  to  stop  this  is  not  to  wait  until  the 
men  have  registered,  but  to  stamp  it  out  before 
they  have  a  chance  to  do  so  [register]. 


Villard  first  studied  law.  Beginning  with 
correspondence  to  German  papers,  and  afterward, 
as  his  English  grew  better,  to  American  ones 
[papers],  he  finally  went  into  newspaper  work. 


That  the  sun  was  once  much  hotter  is  prob- 
able, but  [it  is]  equally  so  [probable]  that  at  an 
earlier  period  it  was  much  colder. 


The  ultra-Conservative  Kreuz  Zeitung  says  in 
regard  to  American  relations  with  Europe  that 
Mr.  McKinley's  election  will  perhaps  not  inspire 
so  much  confidence  as  Mr.  Bryan's  would  have 
given  [inspired]. 

The  writer  thought  he  should  not  re-iise 
the  word  inspire.  This  aversion  to  re-using 
a  word  often  weakens  the  diction. 


In  response  he  announced  that  he  zvas   [is] 
heartily  in   favor   of   the   election   of    [electing] 


92 


so^rF  TLL-usED  words; 


Bryan.  He  epitomized  the  issues  that  he  con- 
siders the  leading  ones  [issues]  of  the  cam- 
paign. 


Having  practised  the  acquisition  [acquiring] 
of  territory  for  nearly  sixty  years,  the  question 
of  constitutional  power  to  do  so  [to  acquire  terri- 
tory] is  no  longer  an  open  one  [question]  with 
us. — Lincoln. 


It  is  fair  to  assume  that  his  later  prophecies 
are  worth  just  as  much  as  his  earlier  ones 
[prophecies]  and  that  expansion  will  be  the 
source  of  new  prosperity  and  power. 


That  the  marquis's  party  is  numerically  strong 
and  influential  through  the  character  of  the  po- 
litical leaders  who  [that]  have  already  joined  it, 
or  are  likely  to  do  so  [join  it]  in  the  future,  seems 
to  be  the  general  opinion  in  Japan. 


It  has  taken  them  a  long  time  to  get  around 
to  this  view,  which  is  the  logical  one  [view].  But 
we  may  be  happy  yet. 


He  shows  plainly  that  Aguinaldo,  after  the 
Spanish-American  War,  was  never  at  the  head  of 
any  government,  unless  a  paper  one  which  [gov- 
ernment that]  he  created  himself. 


THE  ANTECEDENT  CONSTRUCTION 


93 


If  the  millionaires  pay  their  proportion  of  the 
tax  this  year  and  every  succeeding  one  [year], 
as  the  town  people  expect  the  assessors  will  make 
them  do,  the  town  debt  problem  will  be  solved 
easily. 

The  advantages  are  all  on  the  side  of 
employing  a  non-antecedent  locution.  Not 
only  does  it  result  in  greater  clearness  and 
strength,  but  it  commonly  produces  better 
rounded  sentences. 


ANTICIPATE 

This  is  a  much  misused  word.  It  is  not 
a  synonym  of  expect,  foresee,  look  forzuard 
to,  some  of  our  lexicographers  to  the  con- 
trary notwithstanding.  We  do  not,  prop- 
erly, anticipate  a  good  time;  we,  properly, 
expect  to  have,  or  look  forzvard  to  having  a 
good  time.  We  do  not  anticipate  successes, 
failures,  or  storms;  we  expect  them.  If  I 
know  your  sect,  I  anticipate  your  argument, 
said  Emerson;  whereas  Emerson  should 
have  said,  If  I  know  your  sect,  I  foresee 
your  argument. 

Properly  used,  anticipate  means,  to  take 
beforehand;  to  go  before  so  as  to  preclude; 
to  get  the  start  of,  or  to  get  ahead  of;  to 
enjoy,  possess,  or  suffer  in  expectation;  to 
foretaste. 

The  word  is  correctly  used  thus: 

Seward,  learning  of  the  doings  of  the  caucus, 
anticipated  the  action  of  the  committee  by  send- 
ing in  his  resignation. — Lotlirop. 

94 


ANTICIPA  TE 


95 


If  not  anticipated,  I  shall  make  an  attempt  at 
a  magazine  paper  on  The  Philosophy  of  Point. — 
Poe.  

The  chief  portion  of  Professor  Espy's  theory 
has  been  anticipated. — Poe. 


Why  should  we 
Anticipate  our  sorrows  ?     'Tis   like   those 
Who  die  for  fear  of  death. — Shakespeare. 


But,  after  all,  it  may  simply  anticipate  on  the 
Ensflish  of  the  future. — Hall. 


It  is  well  to  have  it  understood  that  our  mu- 
nicipal authorities  had  anticipated  by  practical 
work  the  proclamation  issued  by  the  President. 
New  York  Sun. 


Politeness  seeks  the  opportunity  to  please,  and 
renders  asking  unnecessary  by  anticipating  the 
wishes. 


But  ex-Senator  Gorman's  off-hand  remarks  on 
the  politics  of  the  day  are  always  vague,  for  he 
was  never  inclined  to  anticipate  events. 


From  all  appearances,  the  proclamations  an- 
ticipate the  facts  by  only  a  short  time,  for  each 
day  shows  more  and  more  plainly  the  disintegra- 


96 


SOME   ILL-USED   IVORDS 


tion  of  the  Boer  forces  and  the  increasing  power 
of  the  British  in  the  two  republics. 


During  our  Revohitionary  War,  Great  Britain 
had  to  face  a  conil)ination.  In  the  course  of  that 
contest  a  Franco-Spanish  fleet  cruised  triumphant 
in  the  British  Channel,  and,  could  the  allies  have 
agreed,  or  could  they  have  been  commanded  by 
a  man  of  even  moderate  capacity  [ability],  they 
might  have  anticipated  Napoleon's  dream,  and 
ended  forever  the  dominion  of  England. — New 
York  Sun. 

Here  is  an  excellent  example  of  the  cor- 
rect use  of  anticipate.  Capacity  is  shown  in 
quickness  to  perceive;  ability  is  shown  in 
quickness  to  do.  Ability  does  what  is  per- 
ceived by  capacity:  ability  supposes  doing. 


And  so  these  people  who  pack  up  and  get 
back  to  town  with  pleasant  anticipations  of  set- 
tling down  for  the  winter  will  be  disappointed, 
just  as  they  were  last  year  and  the  year  before. 

This,  doubtless,  would  be  generally  reck- 
oned a  correct  use  of  anticipations,  yet  for 
my  part,  I  should  very  much  prefer  expecta- 
tions.   

Tesla's  plan  for  "  insulation  by  freezing  "  was 
anticipated  about  two  years  ago  by  Prof.  R.  A. 


ANTICIPA  TE 


97 


Fessenden,  so  the  latter  [Professor]  writes  to  The 
Electrical  World. 


I  would  not  anticipate  the  relish  of  any,  nor 
feel  the  weight  of  any  misery,  before  it  actually 
arrives. — Addison. 


In  the  chapters  allotted  to  New  Zealand  it  is, 
indeed,  surprising  to  remark  to  what  an  extent 
Sir  Joseph  Banks  was  able  to  anticipate  what  we 
now  know  of  the  Maoris. — New  York  Sun. 


The  results  of  the  exploration  will  probably 
show  that  Nippur  was  as  important  in  the  fifth 
millennium  before  Christ  as  it  was  in  the  third, 
that  it  anticipated  the  civilization  and  the  period 
when  Babylon  took  the  lead  by  at  least  two  thou- 
sand years. 

Our  travelling  restaurants  have  been  antici- 
pated many  years  by  the  Chinese  purveyor  of 
food,  who  carries  his  table  on  one  end  of  a  pole, 
balanced  by  his  stove  and  cooking  utensils  on  the 
other. 


The  Secretary  for  the  Colonies  anticipated 
inquiry  on  this  last  delicate  question  by  saying 
that  reasonable  men  would  not  ask  the  Govern- 
ment to  fix  a  time  for  "  full  self-government." — 
New  York  Sun. 


C)8  SOME   ILL-USED   IfOA'DS 

Secretary  Gage  announces  that  the  Treasury 
will  iDiticif^atc  the  payment  of  interest  on  bonds 
due  January  ist. 

What  an  admirable  word  anticipate  is 
when  properly  used!  But  when  it  is  made 
the  word  of  all-work,  as  it  is  by  the  slovens, 
what  an  offensive  word  it  becomes! 

Examples  of  the  correct  use  of  anticipate 
are  not  easy  to  find;  not  so,  however,  with 
examples  of  its  misuse.  They  abound. 
Here  are  some  of  the  many  I  have  gathered: 

The  dismemberment  of  China  seems  almost  in- 
evitable. It  is  not  anticipated  [expected]  that 
Russia  will  withdraw  in  any  circumstances,  but 
will  re-enforce  her  troops  now  occupying  Man- 
churia. 

Xo  one  anticipated  [expected]  that  we  would 
[should]  attain  our  plurality  of  four  years  ago. 
This  was  abnormal  and  was  largely  due  [owing] 
to  the  fact  that  but  little  concerted  effort  was 
made  by  the  Democrats  to  get  out  their  party 
vote. 

An  account  ix'hicti  [that]  is  published  by  the 
headquarters  staff  of  the  occupation  of  Kerin  and 
Bedune,  Manchuria,  by  the  Russians,  concludes 
by  stating  that  further  hostilities  in  that  country 
are  not  anticipated  [looked  for,  or  expected]. 


ANTICIPA  TE 


99 


They  do  not  anticipate  [look  for,  or  expect] 
any  hostile  demonstrations  in  either  America  or 
Great  Britain,  but  they  know,  too,  that  unlimited 
immigration  of  oppressed  Jews  from  Europe  will 
not  be  permitted  in  either  of  those  countries. 


It  is  anticipated  [expected]  that  the  recog- 
nized government  in  China  will  be  forced  to 
make  promises  which  [that]  the  anti-foreign  ele- 
ment will  not  greet  with  favor. 


There  was  no  tendency,  however,  to  congratu- 
late each  other  [one  another]  on  the  fact  that 
fewer  miners  had  gone  out  than  the  union  lead- 
ers expected.  In  fact,  it  was  said  that  the  strike 
is  no  [not]  less  serious  than  has  been  anticipated 
[it  was  thought  it  would  be]. 


It  will  not  be  as  [so]  large  as  I  had  antici- 
pated [expected],  considering  the  fact  that  the 
party  organization  was  so  active  and  united. 
Four  years  ago  the  Democrats  did  not  get  out 
much  over  [more  than]  half  of  their  vote. 


The  empress  has  ordered  a  commissioner  to 
investigate  the  conduct  of  the  southern  viceroys, 
who  entered  into  compacts  with  the  foreign  con- 
suls for  the  protection  of  [to  protect  the]  mis- 
sionaries. Their  degradation  is  anticipated  [It 
is  expected  that  they  will  be  degraded]. 


lOO  SOME    ILL-USED   WORDS 

Did  all  the  southcM-n  \-iccroys  enter  into 
compacts,  or  only  a  i)art  of  them?  With 
the  comma,  the  sentence  says  that  they  did ; 
but  this  is  evidence  that  has  little  weight. 
So  long  as  the  relative  pronouns  are  used 
as  they  are  now  commonly  used,  ambigu- 
ous sentences  similar  to  this  will  frequently 
be  met  with.  

We  do  not  anticipate  [look  for,  or  expect] 
any  alternative,  for  we  are  a  peaceful,  law-abid- 
ing- people.  We  shall  be  loyal  subjects  and  we 
shall  keep  our  part  of  the  agreement. 


I  can  not  tell  you  how  we  expect  to  bring 
about  this  scheme,  but  I  will  say  that  I  do  not 
anticipate  [look  for,  or  expect]  any  further 
trouble.  It  is  not  yet  entirely  settled,  but  I  am 
confident  that  we  have  overcome  all  obstacles. 


Do  you  anticipate  that  the  free  coinage  of 
silver  will  be  an  important  issue  in  the  next  presi- 
dential campaign  ? — Nczv  York  Sun. 

The  barbarity  of  this  use  of  anticipate 
could  not  l)e  overtopped. 


These  statesmen,  as   Mr.   Foster  reminds  us, 
could  not,  in  their  times,  anticipate  [foresee]  the 


ANTICIPATE  lOI 

influence  of  two  physical  factors  which  [that] 
have  since  changed  the  whole  aspect  of  the  ques- 
tion of  territorial  expansion,  to  wit:  steam  and 
electricity. 

The  President  has  said  that  he  does  not  antici- 
pate [expect,  or  look  for]  any  trouble  with  Spain 
over  the  Cuban  situation. 


An  exceedingly  interesting  gathering  is  antici- 
pated [expected]. 

It  was  evident  from  the  actions  of  the  crowd 
and  the  remarks  made  that  a  demonstration  of 
some  kind  was  anticipated. 

Looked  for,  or  expected. 


Trade  is  paralyzed  and  many  bankruptcies  are 
anticipated.  The  French  charge  d'affaires  tried 
ineffectually  to  protect  French  interests. 

Looked  for,  or  expected. 


"  They  were  scared,  and  the  man  who  had  a 
small  sum  in  a  bank  was  scared  worse  than  the 
man  with  a  big  one  [sum].  They  shied  at  the 
i6  to  I." 

"  You  favored  it.  Did  you  anticipate  [fore- 
see ?]  the  result  ?  " 


102  SO.UJ-:   I  LI. -USED   WORDS 

Ex-Govcrnor  Levi  P.  Morton,  of  New  York, 
said  to-day  that  he  could  only  speak  reservedly 
on  American  affairs  until  his  arrival  home.  He 
anticipated  an  early  settlement  of  the  Chinese 
question. 

Looked  for,  or  expected. 


It  is  the  worst  of  follies  to  allow  the  antici- 
pation that  other  people's  foolishness  will  render 
futile  our  own  wise  action  to  lure  us  into  acting 
foolishly  ourselves. 

Expectation. 


The  statement  that  General  Gaselee  has 
stopped  British  re-cnforccmcnts  arriving  at 
Hongkong  from  proceeding  farther  north  is  taken 
as  an  indication  that  the  British  Government 
anticipates  that  the  diplomatists  will  very  shortly 
take  the  place  now  occupied  by  the  military. 

It  is  fair  to  presume  that  the  writer  of 
this  sentence  does  not  know  that  we  have 
the  word  expect.  Re-enforccmcnts  should  be 
in  the  possessive  case. 


The  provisions  of  the  treaty  are  so  eminently 
just  and  fair  that  the  assent  of  Venezuela  thereto 
may  confidently  be  anticipated  [expected]. — 
President  Cleveland. 


ANTICIPA  TE 


103 


The  Reichstag  will  meet  on  November  14th, 
when  stormy  debates  on  China  and  violent  at- 
tacks on  the  Government's  policy  are  antici- 
pated. 

Expected. 


O'Connell,  who  had  long  anticipated  such  a 
contingency,  at  once  issued  a  proclamation  in  his 
own  name  countermanding  the  meeting. 

Expected. 


This  activity  has  been  anticipated  and  re- 
ported upon  in  letters  August  25th,  and  cable 
August  31st. 

Was  foreseen? 


No  steam  sizes  of  anthracite  to  be  had,  even 
now,  it  is  reported.  Plenty  of  stove  sizes,  but  re- 
tailers anticipate  a  rise  and,  besides,  may  want 
to  make  some  money. 

Expect,  or  look  for. 


General  MacArthur  recalls  the  department's 
attention  to  his  letters  of  last  August,  in  which 
he  anticipated  a  renewal  of  Filipino  hostilities. 

Predicted?  To  what  a  variety  of  uses 
the  word  is  put! 


I04 


SOME  ILL-USED   IVOKDS 


A)tticil^iitiiii^  storms  of  an  exceptionally  dan- 
gerous character,  all  shipping  on  Lake  Michigan 
has  been  advised  to  remain  in  port. 

Fearing? 


Anticipating  that  the  properties  of  the  Emi- 
gres would  be  confiscated,  he  sold  his  castles  and 
forest  before  the  laws  against  the  Emigres  were 
promulgated. 

Foreseeing,  or  expecting,  or  fearing; 
certainly  not  anticipating. 


The  breaking  of  the  concert  is  hardly  to  be 
anticipated  unless  the  United  States  have  in  view 
some  new  combination  of  the  Powers. 

Expected,  or,  perhaps,  feared. 


The  Opera  House  was  owned  by  a  stock  com- 
pany. It  was  newly  fitted  up  at  the  opening  of 
the  season,  and  a  successful  year  was  anticipated. 

Expected,  or  looked  for. 


Conditions  at  Galveston  seem  to  be  worse,  if 
possible,  than  first  anticipated. 

Thought  to  be. 


There  had  been  more  or  less  curiosity  to  see 
this  new  work  of  Rostand's,  and  it  was  easy  to 


AN  Tl  CI  PA  TE 


105 


anticipate  that  this,  added  to  the  usual  demand 
for  first-night  seats,  would  make  a  brisk  sale. 

Foresee. 


Judgment  in  his  case  was  delivered  on  May 
30th.  O'Connell  had  not  been  mistaken  when  he 
anticipated  that  the  punishment  would  be  a  severe 
one. 

Predicted?  The  a  and  one  are  worse 
than  useless. 


No  disturbance  of  Republican  cart-tail  meet- 
ings here  anticipated.  Maurice  B.  Blumenthal 
^loads  four  issues  on  to  his  orators  and  gives  them 
a  sample  of  blague. 


Expected,  looked  for. 


Our  enthusiastic  correspondent  seems  to  an- 
ticipate some  very  good  results  from  the  verdict 
of  the  people.     He  will  not  be  disappointed. 

Expect,  look  for. 


These  are  some  of  the  more  important  means 
of  avoiding  the  revolution  which  [that]  the  writer 
anticipates. 

■     Fears? 


I06  SO.U/-:   II. I. -USED    WORDS 

Had  that  licet  been  as  powerful  as  was  gen- 
erally believed  and  had  Dewey  met  with  the  op- 
position that  was  anticipated  [expected],  he 
would  .  .  .  have    endeavored    to    carry    out    his 

instructions. 

The  State  Board  of  Charities  has  always  been 
friendly  to  me  and  I  anticipate  no  friction  from 
this  investigating  committee. 

It  is  not  probable  that  Commissioner 
Keller  used  the  word  anticipate.  He,  prob- 
ably, said  he  did  not  look  for  any  friction. 

Words  mif^^ht  be  likened  to  the  em- 
ployees of  a  large  establishment  where  each 
has  special  duties  to  perform  and  where 
satisfactory  service  is  possible  only  by  re- 
stricting each  to  his  special  field. 


ERRORS  IN  TENSE 

Errors  in  using  the  tenses  are  very 
abundant.  The  error  most  frequently  met 
with  is  that  of  using  the  imperfect  tense 
where  the  perfect  tense  is  required. 

Properly,  we  use  the  imperfect  tense 
when  the  time  is  given:  The  tallest  man  I 
saw  in  Paris;  the  tallest  man  I  ever  have 
seen,  i.  e.,  anywhere,  at  any  time.  The  per- 
fect tense  always  reaches  to  the  present; 
the  imperfect  tense  is  always  limited  by 
some  specified  period  past  and  gone. 

To  use  the  imperfect  tense,  then,  where 
the  perfect  is  required  is  absolutely  inde- 
fensible. 

I  never  saw  a  more  determined  purpose  than 
that  pervading  our  membership. — Charles  A. 
Dana. 

Have  seen. 


Mr.  Rice  was  one  of  the  most  careful  eaters 
I  ever  knew. 

Have  known. 

107 


I08  SOME    ILL-rSED    IVOA'DS 

IV'rliaps  it  never  occiirrcii  to  you  that  the 
oliarjfes  at  a  iirst-class  hotel  are  cxceedinj^ly  low. 
Wry  ]>ossil)ly,  on  the  other  hand,  it  has  struck 
you  that  they  zvcrc  [are]  high. — Home  Joiinial. 

Has  occurred. 


We  can  e([ui|)  your  office  with  everything  in 
office  furniture  you  ever  saw. 

Have  seen. 


One  of  the  saddest  sights  I  ever  saw  was  the 
placing  of  a  $300  rosewood  piano  in  a  country 
school  in  the  South  that  was  located  in  the  midst 
of  the  "  Black  Belt." 

Have  seen. 


The  panic  and  period  of  depression  would  set 
in  the  morning  after  election.  There  would  be 
a  pell-mell  rush  to  unload  stocks  and  bonds  and 
other  securities  the  like  of  which  was  never  seen 
in  this  country. 

Never  has  been  seen. 


As  religion  has  its  martyrs,  politics  has  its 
slaves,  and  among  examples  of  such  slavery  the 
Hon.  Richard  Olney,  of  Massachusetts,  is  the 
most  remarkable  that  we  ever  heard  of. 

Ever  have  heard. 


ERRORS  IN'    TENSE 


109 


All  this  imperialism  and  militarism  talk  is  the 
worst  tommyrot  I  ever  listened  to.  No  citizen 
of  the  United  States,  with  as  much  brains  as  an 
ape,  has  the  slightest  fear  that  any  President — 
Democrat,  Republican,  Populist,  Prohibitionist,  or 
what-not — is  going  to  turn  himself  into  an  em- 
peror, or  that  he  could  if  he  wanted  to  [would]. 

Ever  have  listened. 


Roosevelt  is  a  hero.  He  is  one  of  the  most 
successful  campaigners  that  the  Republican  party 
ever  had. 

Ever  has  had. 


John  R.  Walsh,  president  of  the  Chicago  Na- 
tional Bank,  says  that  he  never  knew  a  time  when 
commercial  paper  was  paid  more  promptly  than 
to-day. 

Never  has  known. 


It  is  the  only  sensible  book  on  the  subject  that 
I  ever  saw. 

Ever  have  seen. 


I  wish  to  state  that  so  far  as  the  Democracy  of 
the  city  of  New  York  is  concerned,  there  never 
was  a  time  when  it  was  more  united  and  in 
accord. 

Never  has  been. 


no  SOAfE   ILL- USED   Jl'ONDS 

Another  common  error  is  that  of  put- 
ting- two  verbs  in  a  past  tense,  when  only 
one  should  be  in  that  time. 

Those  were  parts  ivhich  [that]  might  have 
been  supposed  to  have  belonged  to  me,  as  I  had 
been  here  for  several  years  before  him. — New 
York  Sun. 

To  belong. 

The  time  is  sufficiently  indicated  by  the 
first  verb — zccrc. 


In  this  case,  how  miwrh  wiser  it  would  have 
been  to  have  taught  the  girls  in  this  community 
sewing,  intelligent  and  economical  cooking, 
housekeeping,  something  of  dairying  and  horti- 
culture ! 

To  teach. 


It  is  probable,  however,  that  as  soon  as  time 
enough  has  elapsed  for  the  Czar  to  Jiave  heard 
from  this  Government  the  matter  will  be  made 
public. 

To  hear. 


They  will  prove  our  Nemesis  for  not  having 
been  wise  enough  and  strong  enough,  for  not 
having  been   right-minded  enough   and  unselfish 


ERRORS  IN-    TENSE  1 1 1 

enough  to  have  prevented  this  war  in  the  days 
when  it  might  have  been  prevented. 

To  pi^vent. 


If  they  did  they  may  fairly  claim,  I  think,  to 
be  the  last  amateur  sportsmen  to  have  killed  a 
buffalo  on  his  native  range. 

To  kill. 


It  was  the  intention  to  have  captured  the  city 
by  Sunday,  after  which  an  immediate  move  was 
to  have  been  made  upon  Porto  Rico. 

To  capture.     To  be  made. 


It  might  have  been  wiser;  it  certainly  would 
have  been  more  dignified,  to  have  said  nothing, 
rather  than  to  have  tilled  the  air  with  magnilo- 
quent phrases  zvhich  [that]  are  not  to  be  followed 
by  action  [acts?]. 

To  say.     To  fill. 


In  the  first  place  a  representative  of  the  Public 
Hack  Owners'  Union  stood  up  and  very  rapidly 
recited  a  little  speech  to  the  effect  that  his  or- 
ganization deplored  such  occurrences,  and  that 
he  deeply  regretted  that  a  gentleman  of  such 
prominence   should  be  the   first   to   have  felt  it 


112  SOME  ILL-USED   JVOMDS 

necessary  to  use  the  courage  required   to  bring 
complaint  forward  in  this  pubhc  way. 

To  feci. 


I  think  it  would  have  been  better  for  the 
G.  A.  R.  committee  to  have  given  the  name  or 
names  of  the  book  or  books  from  which  the  ex- 
tracts quoted  were  taken  and  to  have  named  the 
Southern  schools  that  were  using  those  specific 
books. 

To  give.    To  name. 


At  the  time  of  the  civil  war  the  only  way  to 
secure  peace  was  to  fight  for  it,  and  it  would  have 
been  a  crime  against  humanity  to  have  stopped 
fighting  before  peace  was  secured. 

To  stop. 


There  were   police   enough,  mounted  and  on 
foot,  to  have  held  a  small  army  in  check. 

To  hold. 


I  would  have  given  $500  to  have  landed  that 
fish. 

To  land. 


Had  any  such  feeling  survived,  the  intention 
of  Mr.  O'Connell  in  making  the  communication 


ERJiORS  IN    TENSE 


113 


which  [that]  he  had  recently  made  would  not 
have  failed  completely  to  have  extinguished 
them. 

To  extinguish. 


We  would  [should]  have  much  preferred,  and 
it  would  have  been  largely  to  our  financial  [pe- 
cuniary] interests,  to  have  done  the  work  on  the 
whole  of  Broadway  both  night  and  day,  more  par- 
ticularly at  night. 

To  do. 


Surely  the  plainer  and  more  honorable  course 
would  have  been  to  have  opposed  its  ratification. 

To  oppose. 


"  If  you  were  running  your  precinct  properly 
there  would  not  have  been  any  place  for  him  to 
have  gone  into  to  gamble,"  said  the  magis- 
trate. 

To  go. 


A  Richard  Mansfield  would  have  imbued  the 
mobs  and  courtiers  who  wandered  woodenly 
through  the  acts  with  enough  of  his  own  fire  to 
have  made  them  seem  almost  human. 

To  make. 


114 


SOME   ILL-USED   IVOKDS 


The  pressure  from  every  side  was  sufficient 
to  have  carried  a  light-weight  President  off  his 
feet. 

To  carry. 


They  were  to  have  played  a  scene  from 
L'Aiglon  at  a  benefit  for  the  Texas  storm  suffer- 
ers, but  it  was  impossible  to  find  a  suitable 
theatre. 

To  play. 


Tlioiij:^h  often  used  as  such,  zvcre  never 
is  a  grammatical  past  or  future  subjunc- 
tive; at  the  best  it  is  a  reportorial  subjunc- 
tive, except  when  used  in  the  present  tense. 

The  fish  towed  the  light  skiff  as  if  it  were 
a  cork,  making  some  swift  dashes  far  under  the 
boat. 

Had  been. 


If  Great  Britain  were  defeated  by  the  Boers 
she  would  be  driven  out  of  South  Africa  alto- 
gether. 

Should  be. 


A  young  woman  tried  to  drown  herself  in  the 
North  River  yesterday.     Before  jumping  in  she 


EJiRORS  IN    TENSE 


115 


carefully  gathered  up  her  short  skirt  as  if  she 
were  about  to  walk  across  a  muddy  street. 

Had  been. 


He  looked  much  as  if  he  were  ill,  and  it  was 
said  by  his  mother  and  sister,  who  were  in  the 
courtroom,  that  he  should  be  sent  to  a  hospital, 
as  he  was  anything  but  a  well  man. 

Was. 


Should  he  decide  to  give  up  his  visits,  it  would 
be  a  decided  check  to  the  diplomacy  that  planned 
them,  and  unless  some  counterstroke  ivere  made, 
would  weaken  its  influences  in  the  future. 

Should  be. 


The  use  of  the  word  "  abuses  "  in  the  Quarto 
of  1864,  indicates  either  that  Shakespeare  had  the 
Hystorie  before  him  when  he  wrote,  or  that  the 
older  play,  if  there  were  one 

Was. 


The  people  of  London  were  delighted  at  the 
repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  and  it  seemed  as  if  all 
the  trouble  were  at  an  end. 

Was. 


He  was  treated  by  all  those  around  him  with 
the  greatest  respect,   as   though    [if]    he  were  a 


Il6  SOAfE   II.L-USED   WORDS 

healthy,  sane  man;  never  a  word  about  him  was 
spoken  in  his  presence,  as  he  might  possibly  have 
understood. 

Had  been. 


Just  what  form  this  open  warfare  w-ill  take 
can  not  as  yet  be  definitely  stated,  but  all  Mul- 
berry Street  buzzed  to-day  with  rumors  that  if 
the  decision  were  adverse  immediate  action  would 
be  set  on  foot  toward  effecting  the  chief's  removal. 

Should  be.  There  are  writers  that  seem 
to  think  that  7C'c/t,  whether  the  time  be 
past,  present,  or  future,  is  the  only  form  of 
the  verb  to  he  that  should  follow  if. 


For  more  than  two  decades,  indeed,  contract- 
ors have  complained  that  English  firms  -were  dila- 
tory, and  that  Englishmen  would  [will]  seldom 
leave  their  dinners  or  their  sport  for  business. 

Are.  

One  of  the  latter  explained  that  Jews  were 
not  unlike  Christians  in  that  respect.  Some  were 
devout  worshippers,  others  were  more  inclined  to 
worship  Mammon. 

Are.  

But  if  this  be  so  the  operators  might  meet  on 
a  friendly  basis  w4th   the  representatives  of  the 


EJiROJiS  IN    TENSE 


117 


mine  workers,  show  them  they  were  unreasonable 
in  their  demands,  wherein  they  were  unreason- 
able, and  all  would  be  peace  instead  of  strife. 

Are. 


The  candidate  could  tell  the  Mayor  that  par- 
ties were  essential  to  policy,  that  there  have  al- 
ways [always  have]  been  and  always  will  be  par- 
ties, and  that  any  politician  ivho  [that]  thinks  he 
could  get  on  without  them  [parties]  is  a  dreamer. 

Are. 

Never  use  a  word  that  sends  the  reader 
in  search  of  an  antecedent,  if  you  can  well 
avoid  it.  Such  w^ords  always  weaken  the 
diction.  

He  said  there  were  now  forty-one  companies 
in  Richmond,  with  a  membership  of  4,000,  and 
twenty-nine  companies  in  Queens  with  a  large 
membership. 

Are  now.  

I  remember  reading  years  ago  that  with  the 
ancients  the  practice  existed  of  bringing  out  at 
all  public  banquets  a  cloaked  and  hooded  figure, 
masked,  with  the  skull  and  crossbones,  to  indi- 
cate that  all  human  triumphs  zvere  ephemeral  and 
that  man  was  [is]  but  mortal. 

Are. 


IlS  SOME  ILL-USED   WORDS 

The  Kansas  and  Nebraska  act  of  1854  was 
sufficient  notice,  if  any  were  needed,  to  the  North, 
that  the  compromise  measures  of  1850  were  not 
"  finalities." 

Was. 


Mr.  Coler  was  quite  indignant  about  it.  Mr. 
Coler  said  that  if  the  Governor  were  quoted  cor- 
rectly, his  remark  was  unfair. 

Was. 


The  imperfect  tense  is  often  used  when 
the  thought  requires  the  present. 

He  caused  a  sensation  by  his  scathing  arraign- 
ment of  his  former  colleagues.  He  declared  that 
followers  of  Bryan  were  [are]  not  entitled  to  a 
party  name,  being  men  of  all  parties  who  for  the 
last  twenty-five  years  had  [have]  nursed  griev- 
ances. The  chief  issue  in  this  campaign  was  [is] 
silver,  he  said,  and  "  imperialism  "  was  [is]  only 
a  scarecrow  set  up  to  obscure  the  real  object.  Ex- 
pansion, he  said,  had  [has]  ever  been  a  Demo- 
cratic policy,  and  acquisitions  of  territory  had 
[have]  been  made  under  Democratic  administra- 
tions, without  the  consent  of  the  governed. 


The  announcement  of  the  Philippine  Com- 
mission that  it  was  about  to  assume  legislative 
and  appointive  powers  under  the  decree  of  Presi- 


ERRORS  IN   TENSE 


119 


dent    McKinley   has    pleased   the    business    com- 
munity. 

Is.  

The  British  will  remember  that  General  Sher- 
man informed  [told?]  them  what  war  was  sev- 
eral years  ago. — The  Chicago  Record. 

Is.  

And  the  fact  that  Mr.  Belmont  has  repeatedly 
asserted  that  he  was  responsible  for  the  opinions 
expressed  in  his  paper  is  now  giving  that  staunch 
free  silverite  more  than  his  peck  of  trouble. 

Is. 

When  this  was  written,  the  paper  was 
appearing  regularly,  and  Mr.  Belmont's  re- 
lations to  it  were  unchanged. 


He  quoted  Sobolkin,  the  great  Russian  re- 
former, who  gave  a  description  of  Jews  in  Rus- 
sian towns,  and  declared  that  they  were  worse 
off  than  any  [other]  people  in  the  whole  world. 

Are. 


Louis  V.  Bell  made  a  bet  of  $10,000  to  $25,000 
with  A.  C.  Tower,  of  Tower  &  Sherwood,  on  the 
general  result,  taking  the  Bryan  end  of  it.      It 


I20  SOME  ILL-USED   WORDS 

ivas  reported  that  tlie  $10,000  %vas  money  of 
Richard  Crokcr  [Croker's],  l)iit  this  i^'as  not 
admitted. 

Is. 

This  is  not  a  statement  of  what  took 
place  at  some  past  time;  it  is  essentially  this: 
Bell  bet  yesterday,  or  this  afternoon,  and  the 
story  goes  that  the  hioney  is  Croker's,  but 
this  is  not  admitted. 


The  Republican  National  Committee  made  no 
mistake  when  it  called  on  Theodore  Roosevelt 
to  show  the  country  the  kind  of  stuff  he  was 
made  of. 

Is. 


His  physician,  Dr.  Burke,  said  last  night  that 
Mr.  Faversham's  condition  was  very  favorable. 
Dr.  Burke  said  that  while  he  was  not  yet  out  of 
danger  there  was  every  hope  of  recovery. 

Is. 


A  table  of  the  fastest  fifty-seven  railroad 
trains  in  the  world  which  [that]  was  printed  in 
an  EngHsh  newspaper  recently  showed  that  Eng- 
land was  no  longer  in  the  van. 

Is. 


ERRO/iS  IN    TENSE  121 

Mr.  Altgeld  admitted  sadly  that  Illinois  zvas 
in  doubt,  and  then  he  said  that  the  wicked  Re- 
publicans had  [have]  a  campaign  fund  of  at  least 
$25,000,000  with  which  they  intended  [intend]  to 
corrupt  the  free  and  independent  voters  of  the 
United  States.  Mr.  Altgeld  said  that  he  was  very 
much  shocked  at  this,  and  then,  without  any  par- 
ticular reason,  he  said  that  he  was  very  much 
dissatisfied  with  the  manner  in  which  Chairman 
Benjamin  B.  Odell  of  the  Republican  State  Com- 
mittee was  acting  in  this  campaign. 

Is.  Since  the  present  is  the  most  forci- 
ble of  the  tenses,  it  is  a  great  mistake  to 
put  what  is  really  present  in  the  past. 


Dr.  Charles  F.,  of  New  Jersey,  corroborated 
last  night  the  report  printed  in  the  newspapers 
that  he  zvas  to  marry  Miss  Mary  E.  W.,  the 
authoress.  The  doctor  said  that  he  and  Miss  W. 
had  [have]  kept  their  engagement  a  secret  for 
the  reason  that  she  zvas  at  work  writing  a  new 
novel,  and  under  [in?]  the  circumstances  to  an- 
nounce  

Is. 


If  you  were  to  attempt  to  define  a  "  trust," 
in  all  probability  you  would  say  it  zvas  a  corpora- 
tion designed  or  calculated  to  produce  a  mo- 
nopoly. 

Is. 


122  SOMI-:  ILL-USED   IVOKDS 

Confucius  would  be  called  an  ajjnostic  now. 
He  taught  that  there  were  four  topics  to  be 
avoided. 

Are. 


He  proposed  that  the  testimony  of  Airs.  Cox 
be  allowed  and  then  stricken  out  later,  if  it  were 
found  to  be  illegal. 

Should  be. 

No  one  will  question  the  importatice  of 
using  the  verbs  correctly.  We  commonly 
are  understood  when  we  do  not  use  them 
correctly;  so  we  may  be,  and  often  are, 
understood  when  we  do  not  say  just  what 
we  intend  to  say.  The  diction,  however,  is 
never  good,  unless  the  thought  intended  is 
clearly  and  grammatically  expressed. 


ANXIOUS 

This  word  is  continually  made  to  do 
duty  for  desirous,  and  that,  too,  by  wellnigh 
everybody,  by  the  lettered  as  well  as  by  the 
unlettered.  If  used  only  when  it  should  be 
used,  anxious  would  not  be  used  once  where 
now  it  is  used  twenty  times.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  desirous  were  used  when  it  should 
be  used,  it  would  be  used  twenty  times 
w'here  now  it  is  used  hardly  once.  Indeed, 
anxious  has  banished  desirous — which,  prop- 
erly, is  not  even  its  synonym — from  the 
vocabulary  of  many  a  one  that  is  reckoned 
among  good  speakers. 

Where  there  is  anxiety,  there  is  always 
dread,  fear,  mental  distress,  painful  solici- 
tude, apprehensive  foreboding;  whereas  in 
desire  there  is  only  a  wish,  a  longing,  as  a 
desire  to  be  rich,  to  see  the  world,  to  be 
famous. 

Anxiety  and  solicitude  are  close  syno- 
nyms,   anxiety    being    the    stronger    term. 

123 


124 


SOME  ILL-USED   IVOKDS 


Nt)t  infro(HUMitl\'.  auxiciy  is  used  when  so- 
licitude would  be  the  proper  term. 

Here  arc  two  sentences  that  I  used  in 
The  VerbaHst  as  examples  of  the  correct 
use  of  anxious: 

Then  he  was  trying  his  'prentice  hand  and  was 
more  anxious  about  the  treatment  than  about  the 
matter. — Julian  Hawthorne. 

Is  not  anxious  too  strong  a  term? 
Would  not  co]iccrncd  or  solicitous  be  quite 
strong  enough?  Of  veritable  anxiety  there 
could  hardly  have  been  any. 


Naturally  she  was  anxious  about  the  appear- 
ance he  made  in  what  is  called  society. — Badeau. 

I  am  now^  inclined  to  think  that  the 
thought  would  be  better  expressed  by  so- 
licitous. She  was  solicitous  with  regard  to 
the  appearance  he  made. 


The  office  of  the  Monarch  Line  of  steamships 
had  many  callers  yesterday.  They  had  friends  or 
relatives  on  board  the  Lydian  Monarch  and  were 
anxious  in  regard  to  their  fate. 

Here,  no  other  word  would  serve. 


ANXIOUS 


125 


The  story  of  a  man  ivho  [that]  grew  gray  in 
the  space  of  one  night's  anxiety  is  very  famous. 
— Spectator.  

I  am  very  sincerely  solicitous  for  the  preserva- 
tion [preserving]  or  curing  of  Mr.  Langton's 
sight. — Johnson. 

Of  the  many  examples  I  have  gathered 
of  the  misuse  of  anxious,  here  are  a  few: 

We  are  anxious  to  make  this  point  clear  so  as 
to  avoid  any  disappointment. 

Surely  desirous  is  as  strong  a  term  as  is 
here  required.  Of  anxiety  there  can  be 
none.  

Not  that  the  benefits  granted  to  Germany  are 
important,  as  German  wines  chiefly  are  affected ; 
but  the  agreement  is  taken  as  an  indication  that 
both  the  American  and  the  German  Governments 
are  anxious  to  avoid  a  tariff  war. 

Desirous. 


The  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court,  who  are 
most  anxious  to  prevent  any  wrong  practices  in 
the  divorce  court,  have  for  a  long  time  been  try- 
ing to  formulate  some  plan  to  prevent  the  court 
[court's]  being  imposed  upon  and  deceived. 

Desirous. 


126  SOME   ILL-USED   IVOA'DS 

Then  will  arise  the  question  of  details  of  the 
indeninitics  and  means  of  security.  Therefore 
the  Chinese  Commissioners  are  more  anxious 
than  the  Powers  to  hurry  [hasten]  the  negotia- 
tions to  a  close. 

Desirous. 


One  thousand  tons  of  coal  were  mined  in  the 
two  collieries  which  [that]  were  in  operation 
yesterday,  and  one  mine  is  still  working  to-day. 
Mr.  Thorne  said  that  80  per  cent  of  his  men  were 
anxious  and  willing  to  get  back. 

Desirous.  

Germany  is  not  in  favor  of  continuing  hos- 
tilities in  China.  She  is  most  anxious  that  the 
Powers  agree  upon  a  middle  course,  pleasing  alike 
to  those  nations  which  [that]  favor  the  occupa- 
tion of  Pekin  and  those  which  [that]  would  like 
to  withdraw. 

Desirous. 


.  The  property  adjoins  that  of  John  D.  Rocke- 
feller, w'ho  is  said  to  be  desirous  of  getting  rid  of 
Melin  and  his  saloon.  The  saloon  keeper  is  anx- 
ious to  sell,  but  it  is  said  wants  too  high  a  price. 

This  writer  evidently  thinks  that  desir- 
ous and  anxious  are  interchangeable.  De- 
sirous to  get. 


ANXIOUS 


127 


The  great  success  of  American  jockeys  has  of 
course  stirred  up  a  little  jealousy,  but  the  ma- 
jority of  English  racing  men  are,  I  am  sure,  anx- 
ious to  treat  us  fairly. 

Desirous. 


Belief  that  he  has  now  asserted  his  authority 
and  will  behead  Prince  Tuan.  To  leave  the  Em- 
press Dowager  at  Singan-fu.  No  Power  anxious 
to  prolong  the  crisis. 

Desirous. 


Mr.  Olney  dismisses  free  silver  at  16  to  i 
without  even  mentioning  it,  lumping  it  with  other 
minor  differences  of  opinion  ivhich  [that]  may 
be  overlooked  by  any  Democrat  anxious  to  remain 
with  his  party. 

Desirous. 


For  himself,  being  anxious  to  get  the  ordeal 
of  his  maiden  speech  over  as  soon  as  possible, 
he  spoke  on  the  very  evening  when  [that]  he 
entered  Parliament. 

Desirous. 


But  however  much  the  American  heiress  may 
pity  the  princeling  who  has  placed  his  art  treas- 
ures and  himself  at  her  feet,  she  will  do  well  to 


J  28  SOME   ILL- USED   WORDS 

ask,  "Would  you  be  so  anxious  to  marry  mc  if 
you  could  sell  your  pictures?" 

Desirous. 


Mayor  Joseph  Mason's  office  was  surrounded 
last  night  by  over  [more  than]  five  hundred 
people,  all  anxious  to  catch  sight  of  a  woman  in 
man's  clothes  zvho  [that]  had  caused  the  arrest 
of  her  husband  for  assault. 

Desirous. 


But  all  of  them  are  interested  in  the  welfare 
of  the  Manhattan  Club  and  arc  anxious  to  see  it 
successful. 

Desirous. 


Moreover,  England  is  anxious  to  enlist  the  in- 
tervention of  the  United  States  in  the  Chinese 
settlement,  and  she  could  not  have  looked  for  aid 
in  this  direction  from  Mr.  Bryan. 

Desirous. 


There  was  one  thing  he  was  particularly  anx- 
ious to  have  made  clear,  and  that  was  that  he  had 
not  been  in  Mount  Vernon  since  the  night  his  def- 
alcation was  discovered. 


Desirous. 


ANXIOUS 


129 


Mr.  Burdine  was  very  anxious  to  have  the 
mother  back.  She  had  long  been  a  faithful  and 
trusted  servant. 

Desirous. 


The  reason  for  Michael's  glee  was  that  eggs 
are  selling  for  24  cents  a  dozen,  and  twenty-four 
dozen  would  cost  $5.76.  He  forgot  that  others 
besides  Baker  were  anxious  to  see  the  fun,  and 
that  $5.76  was  but  a  small  item  among  150  men. 

Desirous.  ' 

The  late  king  once  remarked,  it  seems,  that  he 
was  not  particularly  anxious  to  acquire  all  the 
youth  and  beauty  of  Siam  himself,  but,  as  so  many 
of  her  fairest  daughters  had  already  been  pre- 
sented to  him,  he  could  not  possibly  refuse  similar 
gifts  in  the  future,  as  he  did  not  wish  to  offend 
any  of  his  subjects. 

Desirous. 


Boston  has  been  very  generous  in  the  past  in 
all  such  cases,  and  the  mayor  is  anxious  that  the 
city  shall  maintain  its  reputation  for  open-handed- 
ness. 

Desirous. 


We   are   most   anxious   to   preserve   our   his- 
torical continuity,  and  we  are   far  too  patriotic 

9 


I30 


SOME   ILL-USED   WORDS 


ever   to   dream   of  such   a   thing   as   denationali- 
zation. 

Desirous. 


I  am  certainly  as  anxious  to  maintain  the  gold 
standard  as  you  are. — Carl  Schurz's  letter  to  Sec- 
retary Gage. 

Desirous. 


Wiggs — Why  are  you  so  anxious  to  be  cast 
for  the  role  of  Hamlet? 

Futlites — As  I  recollect  the  part,  I  get  a 
chance  to  kill  most  of  the  other  members  of  the 
company. 

Desirous.  

Of  course  I  am  very  anxiotis  to  get  married 
immediately.  I  told  her,  however,  that  I  vi^as 
willing  to  wait  until  she  had  finished  this  new 
novel. 

Desirous. 


I  am  very  anxious  to  make  a  success  in  the 
new  piece,  and  if  hard  work  will  accomplish  it  I 
will  [shall].  We  begin  rehearsals  to-morrow 
morning,  and  there  will  be  a  lot  of  work  before 
we  will  [shall]  have  it  ready  for  the  stage. 

Desirous. 


ANXIOUS 


131 


We  are  gathered  here  to-night  as  patriotic  citi- 
zens, anxious  to  do  something  toward  reinstating 
the  prosperity  of  our  fellow-countrymen,  and  pro- 
tecting the  fair  fame  of  our  nation  against  shame 
and  scandal. 

Desirous. 


Mr.  Bryan  was  so  anxious  to  have  this  treaty 
ratified  that  he  came  in  person  to  Washington 
to  use  his  influence  with  the  opposition  Senators 
in  its  behalf,  and  he  himself  has  admitted  that 
he  was  responsible  for  its  ratification. 

Desirous.  If  he  was,  he  still  is,  hence 
why  not  .write  is? 

The  Republican  party  is  not  afraid  to  meet 
any  issue,  past  or  present.  I  am  always  anxious 
myself  to  oblige  my  adversaries  by  discussing  any 
subject  they  may  select. 

Desirous. 


The  Government  is  anxious  to  have  the  ne- 
gotiations transferred  to  some  place  remote  from 
Pekin,  such  as  Brussels,  Berne,  or  The  Hague. 

Desirous.  

For  this  reason  he  was  so  anxious  to  secure 
the  contract  that  he  was  willing  to  pay  liberally. 

Desirous. 


132  SOME   ILL-USED   WORDS 

For  some  time  past  it  has  been  known  that 
Lieutenant-Governor  Woodruff  has  been  anxious 
to  reorganize  the  party  in  Kings  in  order  to  at- 
tract to  it  the  independent  element  for  the  coming 
municipal  campaign. 

Desirous. 

The  Government  is  anxious  to  have  some 
naval  representation  on  the  west  side  of  the 
Isthmus  during  the  present  disturbed  condition 
of  political  affairs  in  Colombia,  but  does  not  re- 
gard the  situation  as  so  serious  as  to  demand 
immediate  attention. 

Desirous. 


We  write  best  when  we  say  just  what 
we  would  say  and  say  no  more.  The  fre- 
quency of  our  talking  about  Anxiety  when 
we  mean  Desire,  does  not  lessen  its  dic- 
tional  sinfulness. 


FINANCIAL 

Heee  is  a  verbal  invader  that,  probably, 
has  as  much  to  answer  for  as  any  other 
word  in  the  language. 

Financial,  pecuniary,  and  monetary, 
though  related  in  signification,  are  not  in- 
terchangeable. A  monetary  transaction  is 
one  in  which  money  changes  hands;  pe- 
cuniary refers  to  a  transaction  in  which 
value  is  involved;  -financial  is  used  in  speak- 
ing of  the  money  afifairs,  the  finances,  of  a 
government  and  of  private  business  enter- 
prises of  great  magnitude.  Successes  are 
pecuniary,  not  financial,  and  we  assist  our 
friends  pecuniarily,  not  financially. 

Scores  of  others  have  been  bribed  by  appoint- 
ments to  the  Senate  of  Canada  for  life,  and  others 
by  invitations  to  accept  seats  in  the  Cabinet,  and 
hundreds  of  others  by  financial  considerations  ex- 
pressed in  public  contracts,  land  grants,  grants  of 
timber  lands,  and  mines  of  great  value. 

Had  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald  offered  the  Hon. 
Sir  Oliver  Mowat  a  financial  consideration   for 

133 


134  SOME   ILL-USED    WORDS 

his  support  of  Rritish  connection  he  would  have 
spurned  it  with  contempt. — Alice  Slonc  Black- 
u<cU. 

P^ectiniarv,  or  money  consideration. 


One  of  the  most  serious  features  of  the  Gal- 
veston storm  from  a  financial  standpoint,  is  that 
there  were  scarcely  a  dozen  storm  policies  held 
in  the  entire  city,  according  to  a  statement  of 
Mr.  Charles  Janvier,  of  this  city,  president  of  the 
Sun  Insurance  Company,  of  New  Orleans,  and 
one  of  the  hest-posted  [informed]  insurance  men 
in  the  South. 

IMonetarv,  or  money. 


From  the  financial  standpoint  the  college 
women  married  better  than  the  non-college 
women. 

Pecuniary,  or  worldly;  certainly  not 
financial.  

It  is  alleged  by  the  detectives  that  Mulhall, 
who,  they  assert,  is  Salman,  received  credit  from 
a  number  of  firms,  who  took  the  circular  as  a  true 
statement  of  his  financial  responsibility. 

Pecuniary. 

The  directors  of  the  company  operating  the 
mill  say  that  they  kept  the  mill  in  operation  dur- 


FINANCIAL 


135 


ing  the  summer  at  a  financial  loss  because  they 
did  not  want  to  throw  the  girls  out  of  work  and 
in  order  to  retain  them  for  the  busy  season. 

Pecuniary.  


The  men  who  [that]  put  up  the  money  were 
the  Hon.  Richard  Croker,  Chieftain  of  the  New 
York  Democracy,  and  some  of  his  political  and 
financial  friends. 

Moneyed.  


No  one  is  financially  interested  in  this  latest 
undertaking  but  myself.  Because  of  my  experi- 
ence I  think  I  am  more  competent  than  any 
[other]  manager  or  [any]  architect  in  this  city  to 
build  the  kind  of  a  playhouse  the  people  want. 

Pecuniarily,       


The  financial  profit  obtained  by  Secretary 
Long's  refusal  to  accept  the  original  bids  is  con- 
siderable. 

Pecuniary.  


We  have  now  been  paying  these  debts  and 
bringing  home  many  of  our  securities  and  estab- 
lishing countervailing  credits  abroad  by  [with?] 
our  loans,  and  placing  ourselves  upon  [on]  a  sure 
foundation  of  financial  independence. 

Pecuniary. 


136  SOME   I  LI. -USED   WORDS 

At  that  time  the  Manhattan  was  housed  in 
the  Stewart  Mansion  at  Thirty-fourth  Street 
and  Fifth  Avenue,  and  was  in  a  bad  way  finan- 
cially. 

Pcctiiiiarilv. 


The  company  had  been  in  financial  difficulties 
for  oz'er  [more  than]  a  year,  but  through  heavy 
advances  had  been  kept  afloat  until  after  its 
through  line  had  been  completed. 

Pecuniary,  or  money  difficulties. 

Money,  so  far  as  I  know,  is  not  recog- 
nized as  an  adjective,  yet  it  would  not  re- 
quire much  courage  so  to  use  it. 


News  of  Henry  V  as  a  financial  success  seems 
to  have  reached  London.  Lewis  Waller,  a  popu- 
lar actor  there,  says  that  he  will  [shall]  revive 
the  Shakespeare  drama  on  a  fine  scale  at  the 
Lyceum. 

Pecuniary. 


The  play  will  undoubtedly  haye  a  great  finan- 
cial success. 


Pecuniary. 


Auditor  Castle,  of  the  Post  Office  Department, 
made    public    to-day    a    statement    ivhich    [that] 


FINANCIAL 


137 


shows   the   entire   Unancial   result   of   the   postal 
service  for  the  year  1900. 

Monetary,  

Furthermore,   all   his   financial  obligations   to 
the  estate  are  to  be  cancelled. — New  York  Sun. 

Pecuniary.  


The  President  is  not  unmindful  of  the  dis- 
tressed financial  condition  of  Spain,  and  what- 
ever consideration  the  United  States  may  show 
must  come  from  its  sense  of  generosity  and  be- 
nevolence, rather  than  from  any  real  or  technical 
obligation. 

Spain  was  in  want  of  money,  hence  her 
trotibles  were  pecuniary;  if  she  had  been 
well  supplied  with  money,  but  had  had  dif- 
ficulty in  managing  her  finances — if  her 
finances  had  simply  been  in  a  tangle — her 
troubles  would  have  been  financial.  Being 
in  financial  difficulties  is,  by  a  good  deal, 
not  so  serious  a  matter  as  being  in  pecun- 
iary difficulties.  True,  the  thing  that  com- 
monly makes  financiering  dif^cult  is  a  lack 
of  means. 

As  far  as  any  one  here  knows,  he  is  in  that 
same  financial  condition  to-day. 

Pecuniary. 


138  SOAfE   n.L-rSED    WORDS 

Tlicrc  will  be  a  thorough  canvass  of  the  under- 
graduate and  alumni  bodies  this  fall  for  sub- 
scribers to  the  orchestra  fund,  and  there  is  little 
fear  that  any  financial  deficit  will  ensue. 

jMonetary.  

Hinsdale  being  a  small  county  and  in  financial 
straits,  there  is  no  regularly  appointed  deputy 
sheriff,  so  the  imprisoned  physician  claims  this 
office. 

Pecuniary  or  monetary. 


We  do  not  believe  that  it  will  be  a  failure.  Its 
financial  success  for  one  year  at  least  is  secured 
in  advance,  providing  [provided]  the  editor's  in- 
numerable friends  do  their  duty  at  the  beginning, 
and  providing  [provided]  likewise  that  Mr. 
Bryan  is  careful  that  The  Commoner  does  not 
degenerate  into  The  Communist. — New  York 
Sun,  December  2g,  ipoo. 

Pecuniary.         

It  is  quite  as  difficult,  perhaps,  always  to 
use  financial,  pecuniary,  and  monetary  cor- 
rectly as  it  is  to  use  generally,  commonly, 
and  usually  correctly.  Who  is  the  he  or 
the  she  that  does  it?  Financial  would  be 
little  used,  if  used  only  in  its  true  significa- 
tion. 


HURRY 

As  an  invader,  hurry  is  a  close  second  to 
anxious.  Hurry  has  crowded  haste  pretty 
nearly  out  of  the  vocabulary  field.  Hurry, 
if  properly  used,  is  a  word  that  would  be 
used  rarely,  whereas  haste,  now  little  used, 
is  a  word  that  would  be  used  much,  if  hurry 
would  but  keep  out  of  its  field. 

Though  widely  different  in  meaning, 
both  the  noun  and  the  verb  hurry  are  con- 
tinually used  in  the  sense  of  haste  and 
hasten. 

Hurry  implies  not  only  haste,  but  haste 
with  confusion,  flurry;  to  move  or  to  act 
with  injurious  haste.  Haste,  to  the  con- 
trary, implies  only  celerity  of  movement, 
despatch,  speed,  expedition,  an  eager  de- 
sire to  make  progress.  Unlike  hurry,  Jiaste 
is  not  incompatible  with  dignity  and  delib- 
eration. In  hurry  there  is  an  absence  of 
forethought  and  method.     Hasten  we  often 

139 


140 


SOME   ILL-USED   J^'OKDS 


should.  Init  hurry  never!    Properly,  then,  we 
tell  others  to  ;;/(//vV  liastc,  not  to  hurry  up. 

The  bookkeeper  may  sometimes  be  in  haste, 
but  of  all  men  he  should  never  be  in  a  hurry. — 
/.  M.  Buckley. 

It  is  rough  all  around  for  Spain,  so  much  so 
[rough]  that  we  could  [should?]  not  be  surprised 
if  Weyler  were  any  day  to  jump  into  one  of  the 
cars  of  the  railroad  train  ivhicJi  [that]  is  held  in 
readiness  for  him,  and  hurry  back  to  Havana. 
— New  York  Sun. 

Hasten. 


The  aldermen  are  in  no  hurry  to  revive  street 
music. — New  York  Sun. 

Haste. 


Though  I  am  in  a  great  hurry.  I  can  not  let 
the  opportunity  slip  to  let  you  know 

Great  haste. 

If  you  do  not  hurry,  you  will  be  late. 

Hasten.  

Delay  will  suit  the  Empress  Dowager.  But  it 
is  impossible  to  hurry  matters  in  China. 

Hasten. 


HURR  Y 


141 


When  Chairman  Stranahan  rapped  for  order 
at  10.13  o'clock,  delegates  and  spectators  were 
still  pouring  into  the  building  in  a  steady  stream. 
The  late  comers  were  seated  in  a  hurry  and  then 
Mr.  Stranahan  said 

Haste. 


The  correspondent  of  The  Sun  knows  that 
pressure  is  being  brought  to  bear  on  some  of  the 
Ministers  by  merchants  in  their  own  countries 
to  hurry  up  the  completion  of  the  treaty. 

Hasten. 


The  party  leaders,  the  officers  of  the  Conven- 
tion, and  the  men  who  were  to  make  the  speeches 
were  not  in  a  hurry ;  most  of  them  had  been  up 
until  long  after  midnight,  and  this  morning  they 
slept  late. 

Haste. 


She  was  without  her  hat   and   seemed  to  be 
in  a  hurry. 

Perhaps    she    was    fltirried,    and    conse- 
quently in  a  hurry. 


After  declaring  himself  in   this  manner,   the 
Democratic   nominee   hurried  to   make   speaking 


142 


SOME   ILL-USED   WORDS 


engagements  for  La  Salle  and  Joliet  for  the  even- 
ing of  October  9th. 

Hastened?         

According  to  advices  received  here  the  Vice- 
roys have  received  urgent  orders  to  hurry  money 
to  Singan-fu  to  pay  the  troops,  who  are  believed 
to  be  mutinous. 

Hasten. 


Go  slowly,  there  is  no  hurry. 
Haste.  

Returns  from  Mexico  in  a  hurry  and  after  a 
stormy  conference  lieutenant  governor  with- 
draws opposition. 

Haste.  

Immediately  upon  his  arrival  he  conferred 
with  some  of  his  associates  and  then  hurried  ofif 
to  Woodruff's  home  to  have  it  out  with  the  lieu- 
tenant governor. 

Hastened.  

Despite  Mr.  Nixon's  statement  there  did  not 
seem  to  be  any  hurry  on  the  part  of  the  gambling 
houses  and  poolroom  keepers  to  get  under  cover. 
— New  York  Sun. 

Haste. 


HURRY 


143 


Miles  may  answer  Alger.  The  General  says 
he  is  in  no  hurry  to  reply,  but  may  do  so  [reply] 
later. 

Haste. 


The  mind  is  hurried  out  of  itself  by  a  crowd 
of  great  and  confused  images. — Burke. 


Hurry,  whether  as  noun  or  as  verb,  is  a 
word  we  should  seldom  have  use  for,  if  we 
used  it  to  express  only  what  it  really 
means. 


THE  POSSESSIVE 

W'e  should  always  put  pronouns  and 
commonly  nouns  in  the  possessive  case, 
when  they  precede  verbal  nouns,  as  they 
are  called  by  some,  participial  nouns,  as 
they  are  called  by  others,  and  infinitives  in 
iug  as  they  are  called  by  still  others.  Some- 
times we  see  the  pronoun  in  the  objective 
form — or  case — and  oftentimes  we  see  the 
noun  in  no  case  at  all;  or,  if  you  will,  in  any 
case  you  please,  except  the  case,  in  gram- 
matical strictness,  demanded — the  posses- 
sive. In  such  locutions  as.  His  coming  was 
not  unexpected.  My  going  depends  on  the 
weather,  John's  leaving  made  no  difference, 
the  possessive  is  imperative;  but  some- 
times, in  the  interest  of  euphony,  when 
nouns  precede  a  participial  noun,  they  are, 
purposely,  not  inflected.  In  the  great  ma- 
jority of  cases,  how'ever,  when  the  inflexion 
is  absent,  it  is  the  result  of  non-knowledge 
or  of  non-painstaking.  The  possessive 
144 


THE  POSSESSIVE 


145 


construction     in     these     sentences     is    the 
primitive  and  regular  form. 

Sometimes  the  downtown  barbers  throw  out 
broad  hints  about  it  being  necessary  to  rehone 
the  razor  after  a  hard  shave  as  a  gentle  induce- 
ment for  a  tip. 

Its.  • 

If  you  can  get  any  kind  of  decent  odds  put 
some  money  up  on  McKinley ;  it  is  Hke  finding 
it.  Even  out  here  in  Colorado  the  odds  are  3 
to  I  on  him  winning. 

His.  

"  That  is  ridiculous,"  said  Mr.  Croker.  "  I 
have  not  heard  of  him  giving  up  and  I  zvould 
[should]  certainly  know  of  it." 

His.  

Yet  he  was  compelled  to  say  that  the  army 
corps  that  was  engaged  in  the  operations  that  day 
— some  30,000  men — was  not  in  a  condition  zvhich 
[that]  would  warrant  it  being  sent  abroad  as  fit 
to  take  the  field. 

Its. 


His  former  cook  sued  him  for  $5,000  for  al- 
leged indignities  and  last  night  had  him  arrested, 


10 


146  SOME   ILL-USED   IVOKDS 

ostensibly    to    prevent    /;/';»    going    to    tlie    Klon- 
dike. 

His. 


IMorcover,  as  the  correspondent  of  the  Daily 
Telegraph  points  out,  it  would  surpass  the  wit 
of  man  to  prevent  them  knowing  our  movements, 
if  not  our  intentions. 

Their. 


Nevertheless,  there  have  been  pretty  well 
established  cases  of  it  having  carried  off  young 
lambs  and  kids,  and  one  has  been  shot  while  eat- 
ing a  rabbit  ivhich  [that]  it  had  just  killed.  Yet 
one  naturalist  who  [that]  watched  the  laemmcr- 
geier  for  twelve  }'ears  never  once  saw  the  bird 
attack  anything  alive.  The  laemmergeier  some- 
times weighs  sixteen  pounds  and  has  a  wing  ex- 
panse of  over  [more  than]   nine  feet. 

Its.  

T  am  glad  that  some  one  has  concerned  them- 
selves [himself]  about  the  matter  to  express  their 
conviction  in  a  daily  paper. — 6".  C.  R. 

His.  

Late  in  August  he  gave  out  an  interview  de- 
claring that  if  Mr.  Bryan  were  [should  be]  Presi- 
dent the  gold  standard  law  would  offer  no  effec- 


THE  POSSESSIVE 


H7 


tive  protection  against  the  country  being  placed 
on  a  silver  basis. 

Country's.  


The  average  American  finds  it  hard  to  think 
patiently  of  an  American  Minister  being  extra 
civil  to  a  sovereign  whose  hands  smell  of  blood 
that  has  smoked  \^'^']  to  the  sky  for  vengeance. 
Congratulations  to  such  an  [a]  one  are  only  an 
absurd  mockery. 

Minister's.  

The  Berliner  Tageblatt,  Hamburgischer  Cor- 
respondent, and  other  newspapers  express  in  simi- 
lar terms  their  satisfaction  that  Germany  is  saved 
forever  from  the  possibility  of  Great  Britain 
grabbing  the  Yangtse  Valley. 

Britain's. 

But  most  important  of  all,  these  three  notes 
say  to  the  American  people :  You  are  weary  of 
unctuous  phrases.  You  are  opposed  to  your 
President  wandering  about  the  Orient  "  outside 
[of]   the  Constitution." 

President's.        

It  was  just  at  this  time  that  Captain  Eason 
put  in  an  appearance  and  prevented  the  bunco 
game  being  played  any  further. 

Game's. 


148  SOME    ILL-USED    IVOA'DS 

It  sees  no  reason  for  any  Power  dissenting, 
and  says  it  should  especially  be  indorsed  with 
alacrity  by  the  Washington  Government. 

Power's. 


He  adds :  "  We  see,  then,  that  there  was  not 
the  slightest  hope  for  our  Government  behaving 
with  any  sort  of  magnanimity  in  the  matter." 

Government's. 


Such  a  marriage  affords  too  splendid  [  !]  an 
opportunity  to  Germany  to  permit  of  any  effort 
being  spared  to  accomplish  it. 

Effort's.  

Yet  within  the  last  few  days  he  has  been 
going  around  telling  his  audiences  that  the  fact 
of  American  money  going  abroad  for  investment 
is  a  proof  that  the  country  is  in  a  bad  way. 

Money's.  

In  a  case  like  this  where  a  false  mark  is  put 
on  the  package,  there  is  but  little  chance  of  the 
sender  getting  his  loss  made  good. 

Sender's.  

In  1896  she  prevented  a  man  named  Pietras 
from  building  a  pier,  and  beat  him  when  he  car- 


THE   POSSESSIVE 


149 


ried  the  case  to  the  Court  of  Appeals.  She  also 
prevented  another  pier  being  built  two  years 
later. 

Pier's. 


I  can  not  think  for  a  moment  there  is  any 
danger  of  such  a  thing  happening. 

Thing's.  

Read  this  at  midnight  roll  call  and  at  the  roll 
calls  in  the  morning  prior  to  the  men  leaving 
their  stations  for  duty  at  the  polling  places. 

Men's.  

Miss  FitzGerald  had  Adolph  examined  by  the 
school  medical  inspector,  who  reported  that  there 
were  no  evidences  of  the  hoy  being  in  danger. 

Boy's.  


She  and  her  husband  live   apart,  but  he  re- 
sented another  \nan  taking  her  out. 

Man's. 


Previous  to  [Previously  to]  that  date  it  had 
occupied  a  small  building  across  the  street.  The 
space  was  so  limited  here  that  it  did  not  admit 
of  a  railing  being  placed  around  the  teller. 

Railing's. 


I50 


SOMI-:   ILL-USED    WORDS 


The  Gleaner  further  asserts  that,  instead  of 
the  revenue  heing  honestly  expended,  there  has 
been  more  extravagance  and  corruption  than  was 
ever  before  zi'it)iessed. 

Revenue's.     Than  ever  before  had  been 

^vitnessecl.  

t 

The  people  are  opposed  to  this  Government 
acquiring  territory  zvhich  [that]  is  not  to  be  gov- 
erned by  our  Constitution.  It  has  no  more  con- 
stitutional right  to  set  up  a  colonial  system  than 
it  has  to  create  [make?]   a  king. 

Government's. 


This  led  to  the  heroine  recalling  how  the  two 
brothers,  then  in  a  wordy  war  with  one  another 
[each  other],  used  to  form  with  their  hands  a 
seat  on  which  to  carry  her  about. 

Heroine's.  Eacli  other,  when  it  is  a  ques- 
tion of  two  only. 


One  can  not  have  good  or  bad  fortune  with- 
out the  other  being  in  the  same  box. 

Other's. 


It  sometimes  happens  that  fiesh  becomes  poi- 
sonous from  the  animal  having  fed  upon  [on] 
noxious  substances  shortly  before  it  was  killed. 

Animal's. 


THE   POSSESSIVE 


151 


The  boy  insisted  on  the  bookmaker  taking  the 
$100  and  putting  it  all  on  the  cheap  thoroughbred 
that  he  thought  had  a  chance  of  winning  the 
handicap. 

Well,  the  horse  that  the  kid  had  picked  only 
won  by  [won  by  only]  about  half  a  block  at  30 
to  I,  that's  all. 

Bookmaker's. 


My  reason  for  giving  so  many  examples 
of  this  simple  error  is  the  exceeding  fre- 
quency with  which  we  meet  with  them, 
Reportorial  English  teems  with  them. 


CAPABLE— SUSCEPTIBLE 

The  Standard  Dictionary  defines  capa- 
ble thus :  Possessing  power  or  capacity 
to  do,  perform,  or  undergo;  as,  he  is  capable 
of  any  crime;  capable  of  improvement  [im- 
proving-?]. 

From  wliich  it  would  seem  that  capable, 
when  properly  used,  is  used  only  in  an 
active  sense.  In  the  passive  sense,  the 
proper  word  to  use  is  susceptible. 

Capable  of  hAng  defended. — Webster's  Dic- 
tionary. 

Susceptible. 

Capable  of  being  defended. — Standard  Dic- 
tionary. 

Susceptible.       

Capable  of  being  protected  against  outward 
violence;  capable  of  vindication. — Worcester's 
Dictionary. 

Properly :    Susceptible    of   being    vindi- 
cated, of  being  protected. 
152 


CA  PA BLE—SUSCEP  TIBLE  \  5  3 

Capable  of  being   destroyed. — Standard  Dic- 
tionary. 

Susceptible.       

Capable  of  being  surmounted. — Century  Dic- 
tionary. 

Susceptible.       

Capable  of  solution,  as  a  problem. — Standard 
Dictionary. 

Susceptible.       

Capable    of    being    set    on    fire. — Worcester's 
Dictionary. 

Susceptible. 

Capable    of    being    ignited. — Standard    Dic- 
tionary. 

Susceptible.  ■ 

Capable    of    being    ignited. — Webster's    Dic- 
tionary. 

Susceptible.       

Capable   of   being   solved;    capable   of   being 
paid. — Webster's  Dictionary. 

Susceptible. 


154  SOME  ILL-USED   WORDS 

Capable    of  being    corrected    or    set    right. — 
Standard  Dictionary. 

Stisceptible.       

Capable   of   being   comprehended. — IVcbster's. 
Dictionary, 

Susceptible. 


Capable  of  being  grasped  or  comprehended  by 
the  mind. — Standard  Dictionary. 

Susceptible.       


Capable     of     being     explained. — Worcester's 
Dictionary. 

Susceptible. 


Capable  of  being  reversed.  That  may  have 
direction  or  position  reversed ;  that  may  be  used 
in  some  way  opposed  to  the  normal  or  usual  w^ay. 
— Standard  Dictionary. 

Susceptible. 

Capable  of  being  apprehended  or  grasped. — 
Standard  Dictionary. 

Susceptible. 


Capable  of  being  understood. — Standard  Dic- 
tionary. 

Susceptible. 


CA  FA  BLE—  S  USCEP  TIBLE 


155 


Capable  of  being  reduced. — Webster's  Dic- 
tionary. 

Susceptible,       

Capable  of  being  set  right  or  amended. — Web- 
ster's Dictionary. 

Susceptible.       

Capable  of  being  corrected  or  amended. — 
Worcester's  Dictionary. 

Susceptible.       

The  trouble  about  the  word  is  that  it  is  not 
capable  of  any  definition.  You  can  tell  a 
"  bounder  "  when  you  see  one.  But  it  is  impos- 
sible to  say  what  a  "  bounder  "  is. 

Susceptible  of  being  defined. 


When  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span,  who  was 
then  the  gentleman  ?  The  poetic  interrogation, 
frequently  propounded,  has  never,  we  believe, 
been  capable  of  satisfactory  solution. 

Susceptible  of  being  satisfactorily- 
solved. 

They  are  capable,  too,  of  enduring  great  heat 
and  for  that  reason  grow  well  in  sub-tropical  and 
tropical  countries. 

Correctly  used. 


156  SOME   ILL-USED   WOJiDS 

Not  capable  of  being  divided  without  losing 
identity. — Standard  Dictionary. 

Susceptible.       


A  vivid-hued,  sometimes  a  many-colored, 
scarf,  often  of  immoderate  length,  capable  of 
being  wound  around  and  around  the  youthful 
neck  or  over  the  head  and  ears  and  neck — that 
was  a  tippet. — New  York  Sun. 

Susceptible.        

To  my  surprise,  I  find  that  not  only  the 
Standard,  Worcester,  and  Webster  use 
capable  in  the  passive  sense,  but  the  word 
is  used  in  like  manner  in  the  Encyclopaedic 
and  in  the  Century  and  by  Johnson  and 
by  Murray.  Indeed,  in  all  the  dictionaries 
capable  is  made  to  do  double  duty — for 
itself  and  for  susceptible. 

Now  if  the  dictionary  way  of  tising 
capable  be  correct,  it  is  also  correct  to  say 
that  coffee  is  capable  of  being  ground,  that 
sugar  is  capable  of  being  dissolved,  that 
lead  is  capable  of  being  melted,  and  that 
iron  is  capable  of  being  welded.  If  it  be 
proper  to  use  capable  in  a  passive  sense, 
what  use  have  we  for  susceptible'^ 


PROPOSITION— PROPOSAL 

The  word  proposition  is  much  misused 
in  the  sense  of  proposal.  Indeed,  it  is  quite 
certain  that  more  than  half  the  time  propo- 
sition is  improperly  used. 

A  proposition  is  something  to  be  consid- 
ered; a  proposal,  something  to  be  acted  on. 

We  admit  or  deny  the  truth  of  a  propo- 
sition; we  accept  or  reject  a  proposal. 

Here  is  a  writer  that,  seemingly,  looks 
on  proposition  and  proposal  as  being  inter- 
changeable: 

The  German  Government  has  indicated  to  the 
United  States  that  it  will  submit  a  new  general 
proposition  [proposal]  in  regard  to  the  settlement 
[settling]  of  the  Chinese  troubles,  which  will,  it 
is  understood,  take  the  place  of  the  German  pro- 
posal to  punish  the  leaders  of  the  anti-foreign 
outbreak  as  a  condition  precedent  to  peace  negoti- 
ations. 

Better:  With  regard  to  settling  the  Chi- 
nese troubles. 

157 


158 


SOME  ILL-USED   WORDS 


Examples  of  the  correct  use  of  propo- 
sition are  not  easily  found.  Here  are  what 
I  have: 

Surely  there  is  nothing  startling,  to  persons 
familiar  with  the  principles  of  American  consti- 
tutional law,  in  the  proposition  that  even  a  great 
city  may  not  take  away  a  man's  private  property 
without  paying  for  it. 


Her  success  as  a  clergyman  was  immense ; 
only  second,  indeed,  to  her  success  in  personally 
proving  the  proposition  that  a  woman  can't  work 
at  all,  apparently,  without  overworking. 


That  woman  is  as  much  man's  inferior  in- 
tellectually as  she  is  physically  is  a  proposition 
the  truth  of  which  is  generally  admitted. 


It  is  dangerous  for  a  debater  to  affirm  a  uni- 
versal proposition,  since  that  can  be  negatived  by 
a  single  exception. 

Herbert  Spencer,  and  many  other  thinkers  be- 
fore him,  have  shown  that  if  we  try  to  realize 
the  absolute  nature  of  the  simplest  phenomena, 
we  are  inevitably  landed  either  in  a  contradic- 
tion or  in  some  unthinkable  proposition. 


Thus,  his  main  proposition  that  Christianity 
is  necessarily   superior  to  all   other   systems  be- 


PROPOSITION— PROPOSAL 


159 


cause  it  is  Divine  is  obviously  based  primarily 
on  his  own  "  sentiment "  or  inward  feeling  or 
conviction  due  to  his  religious  faith,  and  not  on 
any  rational  facts. 

Examples  of  the  misuse  of  proposition 
abound. 

Then  he  applauded  the  proposition  of  the 
Democratic  platform  to  establish  a  "  Department 
of  Labor  "  with  its  head  a  Cabinet  officer. 

Proposal.  


The  next  propositions  are  that  the  forts  at 
Taku  and  the  other  forts  on  the  coast  of  Chi-Li 
shall  be  razed  and  the  importation  [importing] 
of  arms  and  war  material  prohibited. 

Proposals.  


In  one  of  his  reports  Judge  Taft  refers  to  the 
propositions  of  peace  submitted  by  a  number  of 
leading  Filipinos,  and  also  tells  of  the  feast  of 
amnesty  zvhich  [that]  followed  the  issuance  [is- 
suing] of  the  amnesty  proclamation. 

Proposals.  


An  official  note  announces  that  France,  Italy, 
and  Austria  have  formally  assented  to  the  propo- 


l6o  SOME   ILL-USED   WORDS 

sitions  in  the  German  note  for  the  punishment 
[punishing]  of  the  leaders  of  the  recent  outbreak 
before  beginning  peace  negotiations. 

Proj^osals.  


The  nations,  with  the  exception  of  Austria 
and  Italy,  dechned  to  accept  the  German  propo- 
sition that  the  Powers  undertake  the  punishment 
of  [to  punish]  the  anti-foreign  leaders  before 
peace  negotiations  should  be  instituted.  As  Ger- 
many has  now  so  modified  her  proposition  as  to 
remove  the  feature  to  which  the  Powers  objected, 
it  is  regarded  certain  that  there  will  be  a  harmo- 
nious agreement. 

Proposal. 


The  Rev.  \V.  F.  Graham  (colored)  was  asked 
to-day  what  was  the  feeling  among  the  colored 
people  of  the  city  concerning  the  proposition  of 
Miss  Lillian  Clayton  Jewett  to  come  here  and 
make  one  of  her  famous  speeches. 

Proposal.  


And  the  proposition  in  the  Municipal  Assem- 
bly of  New  York  to  abolish  the  name  of  old  Elm 
Street  and  substitute  the  name  of  "  Dewey  Ave- 
nue "  exemplifies  the  third  class. 

Proposal. 


PROPOSITION— PROPOSAL  i6l 

The  proposition  for  the  creation  of  the  office 
of  State  Auditor  is  defeated. 

The  proposal  to  create. 


It  is  learned  here  that  the  discussion  now  pro- 
ceeding in  Berlin  of  an  alleged  American  propo- 
sition to  limit  the  occupying  forces  in  China  to 
1. 000  in  Pekin,  2,000  outside  the  walls,  and  20,000 
elsewhere  is  not  based  upon  any  plan  suggested 
by  the  State  Department  here.  It  can  be  said 
positively  that  such  a  proposition  has  not  figured 
in  the  diplomatic  negotiations. 

Proposal.  


The  diplomatic  negotiations  looking  to  an 
amicable  settlement  of  the  Chinese  troubles  cen- 
tre in  the  proposition  of  Germany  that  the  Chi- 
nese Government  be  made  to  surrender  the  lead- 
ers of  the  anti-foreign  uprising.  There  is  a 
strong  feeling  of  hope  here  that  Germany  will 
modify  her  proposition. 

Proposal. 


Russia  has  made  a  proposition  to  the  United 
States  as  to  a  plan  of  solving  the  Chinese  difficulty 
which  the  Cabinet  considered  in  a  special  session 
to-day. — New  York  Sun. 

Proposal. 


l62  SOME   ILL-USED   WORDS 

It  is  thought  here  that  the  United  States  se- 
cured considerable  advantage  by  promptly  reply- 
ing to  Russia's  proposition. — Nczv  York  Sun. 

Proposal.  

The  amended  canal  treaty  is  the  American 
proposition  to  Great  Britain. — Nczv  York  Sun. 

Proposal.  


The  using  of  proposition  when  one  means 
proposal,  will  commonly,  perhaps  always, 
suffice  to  convey  the  thought  intended;  but 
the  would-be  fine  young  woman  that  says 
she  "  has  saw  "  can  defend  her  diction  with 
the  same  argument. 


PREVIOUS  TO 

The  adjectives  prciions,  subsequent,  in- 
dependent, antecedent,  relative,  and  possibly 
others  are  often  erroneously  used  in  an  ad- 
verbial sense.  When  used  adverbially  they 
should  have  the  adverbial  termination. 

The  captain  is  very  severe  upon  the  conduct 
of  the  English  after  the  battle,  but  independently 
of  such  strictures  his  narrative  is  very  interest- 
ing as  a  description  of  a  part  of  the  great  naval 
battle. — New  York  Sun. 

Not  independent  of,  as  we  often  see  it. 
Independent  is  never  anything  but  an  ad- 
jective. 

More  influential  still,  in  this  way,  have  been 
the  growing  scarcity  of  gold  relatively  to  the 
need  of  it. — President  E.  Benjamin  Andrezvs. 

Unusual,  but  correct.  Relative  is  an  ad- 
jective when  not  a  noun,  and  when  used 
adverl)ially  must  have  the  adverbial  inflec- 
tion. 

163 


164  SOME   ILL-USED    WORDS 

Of  these  phenomena,  the  most  important  are 
the  faihire  of  Great  Britain  to  maintain  her  finan- 
cial and  industrial  preponderance  rdaiivcly  to  her 
competitors,  and  the  evidence  that  the  seat  of 
wealth  and  power  is  migrating  westward,  and 
may  even  now  have  entered  America. 


Without  reference  to  the  Hay-Pauncefote 
negotiations,  and  independently  of  the  provisions 
or  restrictions  of  the  proposed  treaty,  the  Hep- 
burn bill  authorizes  the  President  to  acquire  from 
Costa  Rica  and  Nicaragua  the  necessary  terri- 
tory.— New  York  Sun. 


The  size  of  the  Democratic  majority  rela- 
tively to  the  past  was  of  no  consequence,  even  in 
the  estimation  of  the  Democrats  of  Arkansas. — 
New  York  Sun. 


Pekin — Germany's  proposal  is  not  acceptable 
to  this  Government,  and  Minister  Conger  may  be 
instructed  to  begin  peace  negotiations,  independ- 
ently of  the  other  Powers. 


Examples  of  the  other  sort  are  more 
abundant. 

But  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  George  Ripley  no 
longer  possessed  the  fine  library  that  he  had 
previous  to  our  experiment ;  it  was  sold  to  pay  off 
the  creditors. — Charles  A.  Dana. 

Previously  to. 


PREVIOUS    TO  165 

On  August  28th  last,  Minister  Taylor,  at 
Madrid,  learned  at  a  dinner  given  by  the  Brit- 
ish Ambassador  to  the  representatives  of 
the  foreign  Powers  that  two  or  three  days 
previous  the  Prime  Minister  of  Spain  had. — New 
York  Sun. 

Previously. 


At  the  last  ofificial  dinner  given  by  Bismarck 
previous  to  this  fall,  the  Emperor  gathered  about 
him  a  group  from  v^hich  the  Chancellor  held 
aloof. — New  York  Sun. 

Previously  to. 


The  mayor  will  review  the  parade  of  the 
Knights  of  Labor,  which  passes  City  Hall  an 
hour  previous  to  the  time  set  for  that  of  the 
Central  Labor  Union  and  Building  Trades 
Council. 

Previously  to. 


First,  aim  to  correct  any  mannerisms,  any  ab- 
solutely discordant  conditions  in  the  presence, 
action,  or  speech  independent  of  any  system. — 
New  York  Sun. 

Independently  of. 


A  younger  contemporary  of  Herodotus  was 
Hellenicus  of  Mytilene,  whom  Thucydides  men- 


1 66  SOME   ILL-USED   WORDS 

tions  as  almost  the  only  historian  who  [that]  had 
treated  of  the  period  subsequent  to  the  Persian 
wars. 

Subscqtiently  to. 


Petition  of  Li  and  the  other  viceroys  sub- 
mitted to  the  throne  at  this  meeting,  subsequent 
to  the  appointment  of  Tuan  and  Chwang. 

Subsequently  to. 


For  the  last  year,  Mr.  Rice  drew  only  six  or 
eight  checks  a  month,  but  previous  to  last  year 
he  would  send  from  fifteen  to  twenty  checks 
through  our  bank,  and  was  what  we  would 
[should]  term  a  comparatively  active  depositor. 

Previously  to. 


The  great  epochs  that  mark  the  history  of 
Constantinople  previous  to  its  capture  by  the 
Turks  may  be  indicated  in  a  paragraph. 

Previously  to. 

The  origin  dated  long  previous  to  the  Jack- 
son campaign,  for  nearly  fifty  years  previous  the 
best  tobacco  and  the  best  rum  came  from  Aux 
Cayes,  and  the  best  of  everything  was  designated 
as  Aux  Cayes,  or  O.  K. 

Previously. 


PREVIOUS    TO 


167 


She  lived  at  the  Park  Avenue  previous  to  her 
last  marriage.  After  that  event  she  left  the  hotel 
with  her  young  husband. 

Previously  to. 


The  lawyers  refuse  to  disclose  the  terms  of 
settlement  previous  to  the  meeting  of  the  bank 
directors  to  be  held  next  week.  Mrs.  Schreiber, 
the  mother  of  the  defaulter,  who  was  prostrated 
when  her  son's  crime  became  known,  is  still  suf- 
fering with  [from]  heart  trouble. 

Previously  to. 


Previous  to  the  present  Chinese  trouble  what 
influence,  if  any,  had  Secretary  Hay  exerted 
toward  the  establishment  of  [establishing]  the 
"open  door"  in  China? 

Previously  to. 


Previous  to  the  death  of  Bcha-u'llah  he  made 
many  prophecies,  and  all  of  them  came  true,  say 
his  followers. 

Previously  to. 


He  recalled  that  the  Socialists  alone  disap- 
proved the  Emperor's  telegram  to  President 
Kruger  in  1896,  subsequent  to  the  Jameson  raid. 

Subsequently  to. 


1 68  SOME  ILL-USED   JFOJ^DS 

Having  read  one  of  Mr.  Charles  Reade's 
novels  (the  title  of  which  I  forget),  I  wish  to 
inquire  whether  white  slavery  existed  in  this 
country  previous  to  the  Revolution  (1776)  or  not. 

Previously  to. 

Directors  refuse  to  give  details  of  the  negotia- 
tions with  the  United  States.  Some  urge  that  the 
canal  be  finished  independent  of  any  action  by 
this  Government. 

Independently  of. 


It  is  safe  to  say  that  we  meet  with  the 
incorrect  form  of  these  adverbs  ten  times 
where  we  meet  with  the  correct  form  once. 
Indeed,  we  are  so  used  to  seeing  and  hear- 
ing the  incorrect  form  that  the  correct  form 
not  infrequently  is  disturbing. 


GENERALLY 

It  is  a  common  thing  to  see  the  word 
generally  used  where  one  of  its  synonyms 
would  better  serve.  Indeed,  there  are  per- 
sons, among  them  some  clever  writers,  that 
seem  to  have  little  or  no  acquaintance  with 
any  of  Generally's  kinship.  It  is  easier  to 
write  in  an  indiscriminating  way,  but  that 
is  not  a  good  way  to  choose  if  one  would 
produce  what  the  world  always  has  been 
readiest  to  applaud  and  most  willing  to  pay 
for — quality. 

I  am  often  in  doubt  whether  I  should 
use  commonly,  generally,  usually,  or  ordi- 
narily, but  I  am  sure  I  more  frequently  use 
the  right  word  of  the  four  than  I  should  if 
I  were  not  of  opinion  that  there  is  always 
a  best  one  of  the  four  to  use  in  any  given 
sentence. 

The  distinctions  between  these  words 
may,  perhaps,  be  intimated  thus: 

Commonly  is  opposed  to  rarely  or  ex- 
ceptionally. 

169 


170  SOAfE   ILL-USED   JVORDS 

CiCucraUy  to  rcstrictedly. 

Usually  to  occasionally. 

Ordinarily  to  exceptionally  or  rarely. 
Connnoiily  and  ordinarily  are  very  closely 
allied. 

The  American  eagle — that  is,  the  so-called 
bald-headed  eagle,  which  is  not  bald-headed  at 
all — is  a  fish-eating  bird  generally,  though  it  will 
not  disdain  flesh  when  it  can  get  it. 

Commonly?       

A  certain  portion  of  the  wages  was  generally 
advanced  as  earnest  money. 

Commonlv? 


The  Post,  which  is  known  as  the  Ambassa- 
dors' organ,  and  is  generally  well  informed,  semi- 
officially states  that  the  dispute  between  Field 
Marshal  Count  von  Waldersee  and  General  Chaf- 
fee, growing  out  of  the  latters  [General  Chaf- 
fee's] letter  to  the  German  commander  in  rela- 
tion to 

Ordinarily?        


He  is  a  conservative  Republican,  very  careful 
in  his  estimates,  and  his  figures  have  generally 
proved  to  be  strikingly  accurate. 

Commonly? 


GENERA  LL  V 


171 


In  the  case  of  the  man,  as  generally  in  Semitic 
law,  the  opportunity  for  divorce  was  theoretically 
unlimited. 

Commonly  or  ordinarily. 


Foreign  press  comment  upon  American  na- 
tional character  is  generally  the  reverse  of  flat- 
tering, even  when  it  appears  in  English  publica- 
tions. Yet  even  those  journals  which  [that] 
are  most  hostile  in  their  criticism  concede  that 
Americans  possess  certain  qualities  which  [that] 
place  them  in  some  respects  in  the  front  rank  of 
nations. 

Commonly  or  ordinarily. 


While  it  is  generally  most  convenient  to  be 
able  to  light  all  the  stair  lights  from  any  story, 
it  may  in  some  cases  be  thought  undesirable  to 
have  to  light  all  the  upper  landings  if  only  one 
flight  of  stairs  is  to  be  used. 

Commonly  or  ordinarily. 


Of  the  contract  for  rent  there  were  various 
forms.  Houses  were  generally  rented  for  one 
year,  though,  occasionally,  the  lease  ran  for  a 
longer  period.  A  certain  portion  of  the  rent 
for  the  term  was  generally  paid  in  advance. 

Commonly? 


IJ2  SOME   ILL-USED   WORDS 

"  Sporty  "  McAlister  was  what  he  was  called, 
and  he  was  very  often  seen  on  [in]  the  streets  in 
the  evening,  generally  in  the  neighborhoods  fre- 
quented by  young  girls. 

Commonly? 

He  usually  goes  to  Philadelphia  every  Mon- 
day. 

I  am  a  great  believer  in  sleep.  I  usually  go 
to  bed  early  and  rise  late. 


Ill-used,  because  over-used,  generally  is 
properly  used  thus:  It  is  generally  known; 
it  is  generally  believed;  it  is  generally  ac- 
cepted ;  it  is  generally  regarded. 

The  opinion  generally  prevails,  in  my  neigh- 
borhood, that  McKinley  will  be  our  President  for 
another  four  years. 

Until  recently,  it  was  the  generally  accepted 
belief,  throughout  the  Christian  world,  that  the 
world  was  made  in  six  times  twenty-four  hours. 


It  is  generally  understood  that  the  law  is 
aimed  at  the  executive  council,  to  prevent  that 
body  from  acting  in  an  executive  and  legislative 
capacity. 


GENERALLY  173 

The  distinction  that  should  be  made  in 
using  these  words  is  often  very  dehcate, 
too  dehcate  indeed  for  it  ahvays  to  be  made 
even  by  the  cleverest  and  most  painstak- 
ing. Nevertheless,  however  delicate  the 
distinction,  it  is  none  the  less  worth  while 
to  try  to  make  it. 


APPRECIATE 

If  any  word  in  the  language  has  cause 
to  com])lain  of  ill-usage,  appreciate  has. 
Appreciate  can  not,  properly,  be  employed 
with  a  limiting,  a  qualifying  word — i.  e., 
with  an  adverb,  since  the  word  means  to 
estimate  justly;  to  set  the  true,  the  real 
value  on  men  or  things.  An  overestimate, 
therefore,  is  no  more  appreciation  than  is  an 
underestimate.  He  that  appreciates  justly 
estimates,  and  justly  to  estimate  one  must 
weigh  the  demerits  as  well  as  the  merits. 

"  We  appreciate  him  highly  " — a  locu- 
tion often  heard — is  nonsense.  "  We  have 
great  regard  for  him,"  or,  "  We  think  a 
great  deal  of  him,"  or,  "  We  hold  him  in 
high  esteem." 

We  value  things  highly,  and  we  prise 
things  highly,  but  we  do  not  appreciate 
things  highly. 

Such  proofs  of  kind  and  generous  feeling  are 
naturally  most  highly  priced  by  me  and  will  for- 
174 


APPRECIATE  175 

ever  be   cherished   in   my   memory. — Albert  Ed- 
ward. 


I  number  him  among  my  most  highly  valued 
friends. 


She  said  she  greatly  appreciated  [fully  appre- 
ciated] all  we  were  doing  for  her  country  and  her 
people. 

All  this  only  shows  how  much  Queen  Victoria 
thinks  of  what  Americans  are  doing  in  getting 
this  hospital  ship,  and  how  much  she  appreciates 
[values]  any  expression  of  good  feeling  from 
America. 


Singing  birds  are  esteemed  in  all  countries, 
but  in  Japan  the  musical  sounds  emitted  by  cer- 
tain insects  are  appreciated. 

Bettered,  but  not  mended,  by  using 
prized  where  the  writer  has  used  esteemed 
and  appreciated. 

Unskilled  writers  are  commonly  far  too 
solicitous  to  avoid  tautophony.  The  re- 
using of  a  word  often  betters  the  diction;  in 
part,  too,  because  the  sound  is  repeated. 
When  one  has  a  word  that  fully  expresses 
one's  thought,  as  a  rule,  it  is  better  to  re- 
use  it  than  to  iise  a  synonym. 


176  SOME   ILL-USED   WORDS 

Should  1  write,  "than  to  employ"?  I 
do  not  think  so,  though  employ  would  serve 
as  well,  as  far  as  the  thought  is  concerned. 
Note  the  circumstance  that  the  first  use  is 
under  the  emphasis,  whereas  the  second  is 
barely  touched  in  the  utterance.  This  suf- 
fices to  prevent  any  monotony  there  might 
otherwise  be. 


If  one  would  appreciate  how  thoroughly  the 
entire  industrial  system  depends  upon  iron,  let 
him  imagine  what  the  world  would  be  to-day 
without  it. 

Here  is  a  writer  that  probably  makes 
appreciate  do  duty  for  a  considerable  list  of 
words.  In  this  instance,  realize,  I  fancy, 
would  have  been  a  good  choice  to  make. 


"  You  can   appreciate,''   said  Kerr,   "  that  we 
naturally  have  nothing  to  give  out." 

Not  appreciate,  certainly;  perhaps  under- 
stand. 


He    appreciated   that   his    countrymen   had    a 
claim  on  his  memory. 

Realized,  or,  was  not  unmindful. 


APPRECIA  TE  177 

A  little  care  should  certainly  suffice  to 
enable  any  one  to  avoid  the  misuse  of  ap- 
preciate. The  signification  of  the  word  is 
so  simple! 


DICTION 

Diction,  according  to  the  dictionaries — 
and  what  they  say  on  the  subject  has  never 
been  ciiiestioned — is  the  manner  of  using 
words;  is  especially  that  department  of 
rhetoric  that  treats  of  the  choosing  and  ar- 
ranging of  words.  We  speak  of  the  diction 
of  a  book,  an  essay,  a  drama,  a  speech, 
meaning  the  manner  in  which  and  the  felic- 
ity, or  the  lack  of  felicity,  with  which  the 
speaker  or  writer  has  expressed  his  thought. 
This  is  the  only  sense  in  which,  until  re- 
cently, so  far  as  I  know,  the  word  diction 
ever  has  been  used. 

"  Diction"  says  Johnson,  "  being  the  ve- 
hicle of  the  thoughts,  first  presents  itself  to 
the  intellectual  eye." 

When  the  word  diction  is  used  as  it  is 
used  in  the  following  examples,  what  is  it 
intended  to  mean? 

Mr.  Mann  had  gained  a  reputation  as  an  elabo- 
rate  disguiser   of  himself   and   as   a   speaker   of 
17S 


DICTION 


179 


astonishingly  broken  English.  He  appeared  in 
this  piece  in  much  the  same  aspects  of  droll  vis- 
age and  awkward  physique,  but  his  diction  was 
markedly  improved  in  amusing  value,  because  its 
tedious  slowness  and  reiteration  were  gone  and 
all  its  funniness  was  retained. 


Quite  apart  from  its  great  success  as  a  song, 
Rhoda  and  Her  Pagoda,  as  Miss  Ashley  rendered 
it,  was  a  delicious  piece  of  acting.  Somehow  or 
other,  this  little  girl,  since  she  graduated  from 
the  newsboy  ranks  in  "  1492,"  has  learned  what 
diction  means.  Yvette  Guilbert  herself  could  not 
have  got  more  meanings — either  single  or  plural 
— out  of  this  remarkably  clever  song. 


Shall  we  ever  have  another  actor  with  Booth's 
wonderfully  facile  and  expressive  diction f 


He  begins  to  speak  more  rapidly,  his  eyes 
brighten,  and  the  long  sentences  which  [that] 
roll  from  his  lips  are  as  pure  in  diction  as  if  he 
were  on  the  stage  delivering  in  classical  style  the 
sentences  he  reads  so  wonderfully. 

The  French  have  a  word  that  presents 
the  same  appearance  to  the  eye  that  the 
English  word  diction  presents.  They  use 
it  where  a  writer  content  to  confine  himself 
to  English  would  use  delivery,  utterance,  or 


I  So  SOME   ILL- USED   IVOMDS 

elocution.  This  may  possibly  account  for 
the  "  new  meaning  "  in  which  certain  writ- 
ers use  this  good  old  English  word.  For 
the  benefit  of  the  average  .  reader — for  a 
time  at  least — the  innovation  should  l)e  ac- 
companied by  an  explanatory  foot-note. 


NONE 

The  word  none  is  commonly  treated  as 
a  plural,  as,  "  None  of  them  were  his 
equals."  Though  none  is  a  contraction  of 
not  one,  construing  none  as  a  singular  in  a 
sentence  like  this  antagonizes  established 
usage.  Instead  of  using  none  as  a  singular, 
it  is  better  to  write  not  one  or  no  one,  which, 
besides  being  more  idiomatic,  is  more  em- 
phatic. 

None  of  these  conditions  arc  at  present  ful- 
filled. We  do  not  know  who  or  what  is  the  actual 
Government  of  China.  The  reports  which  [that] 
reach  us  on  this  subject  continue  to  be  untrust- 
worthy and  conflicting. — London  Times. 


Thus  it  happens  that  none  of  the  Cordilleran 
States  from  Venezuela  to  Chili  has  as  yet 
emerged  from  the  stage  of  rough,  pioneer  ex- 
ploration. 

Have.  

The  European  papers  are  now  discussing  the 
problems  that  confront  the  Powers  since  the  occu- 

i8i 


i82  so.}//-:  i/j.-i'SED  iro/y:DS 

pation  of  Pekin.  None  of  them  appears  to  favor 
the  Russian  proposal  to  withdraw  from  the  Chi- 
nese capital. 

Appear. 

No  man  here  expects  to  see  Coler  nominated. 
None  claims  more  than  150  votes  for  him. 

Claim. 

None  of  the  boys  is  over  fourteen  years  old, 
and  young  Meehan  is  only  seven.  Their  parents 
are  all   respectable  people. 

Are  more  than. 


It  is  midway  in  merit  among  them,  and,  al- 
though none  of  the  others  has  won  success  in  a  dis- 
tinctly fashionable  New  York  theatre,  Mr.  Heme 
has  the  advantage  of  an  adulatory  following. 

Have. 

True,  the  role  of  Beckmesscr  is  not  a  severe 
test  of  the  voice,  but  of  all  the  roles  in  comic 
opera  none  perhaps  is  as  difficult  from  the  purely 
dramatic  viewpoint. 

Are  so.  

The  same  is  the  case  with  Kerr.  None  of  his 
relatives  has  called  to  see  him. 

Have. 


iVOA'E 


183 


None  of  the  relatives  of  the  accused  ivas  pres- 
ent except  Judge  John  F.  Kerr,  brother  of  George 
Kerr,  and  his  counsel. 

Were.  

None  of  the  proposals  zvhich  has  been  made  at 
Washington,  except  this  violation  of  a  principle 
of  international  law,  if  it  ever  was  suggested, 
excites  any  resentment  here. 

That  have.  

Of  the  eighteen  persons  referred  to  as  still 
missing  in  The  Sun  yesterday  none  has  yet  been 
accounted  for. 

Have.  

None  of  those  named  by  Charles  Stewart 
Smith  has  as  yet  announced  his  intention  of  de- 
clining to  serve  on  the  committee. 

Have.  

Neither  "  none  have  "  nor  "  not  one 
has  "  is  offensive  to  anybody,  whereas 
''  none  has  "  is  offensive  to  many,  if  for  no 
other  reason  than  because  it  conflicts  with 
habit.  It  is  ahvays  unwise  to  make  use  of 
any  form  of  expression  that,  in  any  degree, 
is  calculated  to  divert  the  reader's,  or  the 
listener's,  attention. 


1 84 


so.)//-:  //j.-us/-:d  ivokds 


'riicro  is  one  of  our  1)1,1;'  dailies  that  seem- 
iiii^iy  is  adverse  to  printing'  a  plural  verb 
with  none  under  any  conditions,  yet  this 
same  daily  prints  dictional  errors  of  every 
description.  Its  columns  teem  daily  with 
auxiliary  verbs  misused.  Somebody  said 
something  once  about  a  gnat  and  a  camel. 
If  the  saying  doesn't  apply  here,  it's  only 
because  there  is  no  gnat. 


INDIVIDUAL 

The  word  individual,  as  a  noun,  is  prop- 
erly used  in  contradistinction  to  collective 
terms.  It  is  often  improperly  used  where 
person  or  man,  for  example,  would  be  the 
proper  word. 

The  rules  applicable  to  a  corporation  must  be 
the  same  as  would  be  applied  to  an  individual  in 
a  similar  case.  There  can  be  no  question  in  the 
present  case  that  if  the  defendant  were  an  in- 
dividiial,  there  is  no  way  in  which  his  acts  could 
be  held  illegal. — New  York  Sun. 

Properly  used. 

The  industries  of  a  nation  depend  upon  the 
actions  of  an  aggregation  of  individuals.  When 
the  individual  considers  an  expenditure  for  a 
permanent  improvement,  and  finds  that  improve- 
ment will  cost  50  per  cent  to  100  per  cent  more 
than  it  would  have  done  [cost]  a  year  before,  or 
is  likely  to  do  [cost]  a  year  later,  he  acts,  and 
that  action  is  almost  invariably  a  postponement 
of  that  improvement. 

Properly  used. 

185 


lS6  SO.U£   ILL-USED    UOKDS 

It  is  to  the  Mormons  as  a  sect  that  I  object, 
and  not  as  ind'n'idiials,  for  among  them  I  have 
met  many  excellent  persons. 

Properly  used. 


Changes,  both  in  individuals  and  in  communi- 
ties, are  often  effected  by  tritlcs. 

Properly  used. 


Action  by  State  and  individual  must  go  hand 
in  hand. 

Properly  tised. 


Great  events  affect  individuals  as  well  as 
nations. 

Correctly  used. 

Individual  is  opposed  to  what  is  divisible 
into  parts.  Etymologically,  it  means  that 
that  can  not  be  divided. 


When  the  Jehu  got  into  the  dispute  with  his 
fare,  two  other  rough-looking  individuals  ap- 
peared on  the  scene  and  took  the  part  of  the 
former  [Jehu]. — Neiv  York  Evening  Sun. 

Men  or  fellows. 


To  this,  of  course,  there  have  been  many  nota- 
ble exceptions,  for  endurance  of  sight,  like  any 


INDIVIDUAL 


187 


form  of  physical  strength,  differs  greatly  in  dif- 
ferent individuals. 

Persons. 


There  are  physical  limits  to  the  executive 
energies  of  any  single  individual,  and,  broadly 
speaking,  there  are  limits  beyond  which  it  is  not 
safe  to  test  the  administrative  capacity  [ability] 
of  a  single  head. 

Any  man.  The  individual  is  always 
single.  


There  are  two  or  three  circumstances  under 
which  the  editor  appears  to  be  an  agreeable  in- 
dividual.— George  H.  Wesiley. 

Person. 

This  proceeding  is  usual,  it  seems,  at  such 
audiences,  and  the  fact  that  so  many  individuals 
hear  everything,  even  at  the  most  important  in- 
terviews, accounts  for  the  impossibility  of  keep- 
ing secret  anything  that  happens  at  the  Tsung-li- 
Yamen  in  regard  to  political  or  other  affairs. 

Persons.  

The  Lord  Mayor  is  a  very  busy  individual 
and  the  following  list  is  a  thoroughly  authentic 
account  of  some  of  the  functions  in  which  a  re- 
cent Lord  Mayor  took  part. 

Person  or  man. 


1 88  SOME    ILL- USED   WORDS 

There  was  nothing  of  the  jaunty  air  zvliich 

[that]    first   distinguished   William   T about 

that  interesting  individual  this  morning  when  he 
was  seen  in  the  city  prison. — New  York  Evening 
Sun. 

Person. 


The  public  trustee  is  a  corporation,  and  it  is 
immaterial  whether  the  individual,  for  the  time 
being  holding  the  office,  disappears,  resigns,  or 
dies,  the  corporation  continues. 

Man  or  person. 


Using  individual,  when  one  should  use 
person  or  man,  is  not  quite  so  objectionable 
as  it  is  to  use  party;  but  the  difference  is 
not  great. 


IN  RESPECT  OF 

If  I  knew  how  to  hit  the  locution  "  In 
respect  of "  any  harder  than  George  P. 
Marsh  hits  it  in  his  Lectures  on  the  Eng- 
hsh  Language,  I  should  not  quote  Marsh, 
who  says: 

"  The  deliberate  introduction  of  incor- 
rect forms,  whether  by  the  coinage  [coin- 
ing] of  new  or  the  revival  [reviving]  of 
obsolete  and  inexpressive  syntactical  com- 
binations, ought  to  be  resisted  even  in 
trifles,  especially  where  it  leads  to  the  con- 
fusion [confusing]  of  distinct  ideas.  An 
example  of  this  is  the  recent  use  of  the  ad- 
verbial phrases  in  respect  of,  in  regard  of, 
for  Mi  or  zvith  respect  to,  or  regard  to. 
This  innovation  is  without  any  syntactical 
ground,  and  ought  to  be  condemned  and 
avoided  as  a  mere  grammatical  crotchet." 

Much  would  depend  on  the  rapid  flow  of  blood 
in  the  case  of  the  head  of  the  guillotined  criminal 
in  respect  of  the  existence  of  movement  or  con- 
sciousness. 

To. 

189 


IQO  SOAfE  ILL-USED    IVOI^DS 

There  was  not  any  appreciable  improvement  in 
to-day's  stock  market  in  respect  of  activity  but  a 
distinctly  better  tone  was  evident  in  the  dealings. 

To.  

It  admits  the  principle  that,  in  respect  of 
South  American  republics,  the  United  States  may 
not  only  intervene  in  disputes,  but 

To.  

In  respect  of  area,  indeed,  the  French  colonies 
much  exceed  the  Dutch. 

To. 


In  the  Periclean  age  no  writer  on  morals  or 
physics  can  be  compared  in  respect  of  style  with 
Plato,  who  belongs  to  the  next  generation. 

To.  

You  will  see  that  I  ask  for  no  change  in  the 
conditions,  as  I  was  perfectly  satisfied  with  all 
the  arrangements  made  on  the  last  occasion  and 
in  respect  of  which  the  New  York  Yacht  Club 
was  so  deservedly  congratulated. 

To.  

Every  reader  of  the  papers,  too,  knows  of  your 
action  as  Governor  in  respect  of  the  Ice  Trust. 

To. 


IX  RESPECT  OF  ipi 

There  is  indeed  one  striking  difference  in  re- 
spect of  custom. 

To.  

Even  if  "  In  respect  of  "  were  as  idio- 
matic as  "  In  respect  to,"  the  fact  that  the 
one  locution  is  offensive,  at  the  least,  to 
some,  while  the  other  locution  is  oiTensive, 
it  is  certain,  to  none,  should,  it  would  seem, 
suf^ce  to  determine  one's  choice. 


FEELS  BADLY 

\\'e  frequently  see,  and  more  frequently 
hear,  adverbs  used  where  the  qualifying 
word  should  be  an  adjective.  In  grammar 
it  is  always  the  thought  that  determines. 
He  that  says,  "  She  looks  badly  or  miser- 
ably "  means  that  she  looks  to  be  in  a  bad 
or  miserable  physical  condition.  "  She 
looks  sadly  or  gladly  or  madly "  is  not 
more  incorrect.  The  thought  is,  "  She  has 
the  appearance  of  being  glad,  or  sad,  or 
mad."  The  noun,  then,  not  the  verb,  is 
the  word  qualified. 

From  the  last  hole  the  wind  smelled  so 
strongly  [strong]  of  gas  that  the  drillers  were 
unable  to  work  over  it. — Pittsburg  Dispatch. 

If  this  be  correct,  then  we  should  say, 
The  butter  smells  or  tastes  szueetly. 


The   oil    used   was   that   of   the   cocoanut,   in 
which  some  sweet-smelling  woods  or  flowers  had 
been  infused.     Most  commonly,  however,  it  was 
192 


FEELS  BADLY 


193 


very  rancid.  Hence  the  wearers  of  it  smelled 
unpleasantly  [unpleasant],  but  Banks  found  that 
he  soon  got  reconciled  to  it. — New  York  Sun. 

The  oil  did  not  really  smell;  it  was  smelt, 
and  to  the  smeller  it  was  unpleasant. 


When  taken  home  and  skinned  the  carcass 
weighed  246  pounds,  and  it  smelled  so  strongly 
of  checkerberry  that  Nye's  family  had  to  go  out 
doors  to  breathe  while  the  work  of  dressing  it 
was  going  on. 

Strong.  

"  Now,"  as  he  there  said  himself,  "  thanks  to 
my  misfortune,  one  can  see  me  nakedly  as  I  am."' 
— Lord  Rosebery. 

Naked.  Grammatical  French,  probably, 
translated  into  ungrammatical  English. 


I  wish  you  would  deny  for  me  that  story  that 
Mr.  Jiggins  committed  suicide  on  my  account. 
I  heard  about  his  death  before  I  left,  and  as  he 
had  been  a  friend  of  mine  I  naturally  felt  very 
badly. 

Bad.  

It  sounded  strangely  to  the  listeners   in   the 
courtroom  to  hear  the  girl   in  giving  her  testi- 
13 


194 


SOAfE   ILL-USED    WORDS 


mony  speak  always  as  she  did  of  "  papa,  mamma, 
and  the  baby." — Nezv  York  Sun. 

Strang'e.      That    is.    It    had    a    strange 
sound  to  the  listeners. 


Why,   then,   does   he   suddenly   feel   so   badly 
about  the  Philippines? 

Bad. 


OF  THE  NAME  OF 

The  locution,  "  Of  the  name  of  "  is  met 
with  frequently,  and  the  locution,  "  By  the 
name  of "  is  met  with  occasionally.  The 
first  is  objectionable,  the  second — nearly 
always — erroneous.  Nearly  always,  the 
one  word  named  is  all  that  is  required. 

We  might  know  a  man  of  the  name  of, 
or  named,  Jones  by  the  name  of  Smith. 
That  is,  the  man  we  know  by  the  name  of 
Smith  might  really  be  named  Jones. 

Accompanied  by  a  young  man  of  the  name  of 
Gaerin  she  attended  the  theatre  last  night  and 
after  the  performance  the  pair  went  to  Court- 
ney's saloon. 

Named. 

At  165  West  136th  Street  last  night  it  was 
said  that  nobody  of  the  name  of  Johnson  lived 
there. 

Named. 


The  police  of  this  city  have  arrested  a  Ve- 
netian shoemaker  of  the  name  of  Giuseppe  To- 

195 


196  SOME  ILL-USED   WORDS 

niazio,  who  is  suspected  of  having  been  the  ac- 
compHce  of  Luccheni,  the  assassin  of  the  Em- 
press of  Austria. 

Named.  

A  young  Frenchman  of  the  name  of  Cauchois 
has  successfully  crossed  the  Straits  of  Dover, 
from  Dover,  in  a  canoe. 

Named.  

A  young  man  of  the  name  of  Stevens  is  nearly 
dead  to-day  at  his  home  in  Spring  Valley  from  an 
encounter  with  a  bull. 

Named. 


His  mother.  Alary,  daughter  of  James  Coghler, 
was  descended  from  an  old  Italian  family  of  the 
name  of  Righi. 

Named.  

Here  are  two  examples  of  the  other  sort: 

Singularly  enough,  a  German  woman  hy  the 
name  of  Helena  Bohlan,  a  convert  to  Moham- 
medanism and  an  inmate  of  a  Turkish  harem, 
has  written  a  novel  entitled  Half  Animal,  which 
is  in  opposition  to  Midhat's  story,  being  an  [a] 
eulogy  of  Turkish  marriage  life. — Literary 
Digest. 

Named. 


OF    THE  NAME   OF  197 

Upon  the  trial  he  offered  to  prove  by  a  com- 
petent witness  that  a  man  hy  the  name  of  John 
Cline  had  confessed  that  he  was  the  guilty  party. 
— New  York  Sun. 

Named. 

This  is  a  locution  that  the  dictionist 
strenuously  objects  to.  Why  use  four 
words  when  one  would  better  serve? 


COMMENCE 

Most  careful  writers  are  content — if  I 
do  not  err — to  look  on  couuncncc  and  begin 
as  being  absolutely  interchangeable,  and, 
as  a  consequence,  seldom,  if  ever,  use  com- 
mence, a  word  that  comes  to  us  from,  or  at 
the  least  through,  the  French.  They  prefer 
the  Saxon  word  begin  and  use  it  exclusively. 

They  that  would  make  a  distinction — if 
such  there  be — between  the  two  words  are 
counselled  to  consult  "  Crabb's  English 
Synonyms."  One  will  seldom,  if  ever,  be 
vulnerable  to  the  faultfinder,  if  one  confines 
oneself  to  begin.  In  truth,  we  could  dis- 
pense with  commence  entirely. 

An  older  man,  with  a  well-developed  beard 
that  is  commencing  to  get  a  bit  wiry,  will  fre- 
quently exhaust  700  strokes. 

Beginning. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  war,  and  at  the 
time  of  the  defeat  of  the  Spanish  fleet  at  Manila, 

198 


COMMENCE 


199 


Spain  was  the  supreme  and  sovereign  authority 
in  the  Philippines. 

Beginning. 


A  passenger  conductor  must  by  experience 
qualify  himself  for  that  position ;  commencing  as 
freight  brakeman,  next  as  freight  conductor. 

Beginning. 


We  'will  [shall]  not  commence  [begin]  operat- 
ing the  Broadway  line  hy  [with]  electricity  be- 
fore spring,  but  we  have  placed  contracts  for 
material  to  connect  the  Third  Avenue  and  Fourth 
Avenue  and  other  East  Side  lines  with  the  Broad- 
way line,  and  soon  after  we  commence  [begin] 
operations  with  electricity  on  the  Broadway  line 
we  will  [shall]  be  able  to  run  the  cars  of  these 
lines  as  well  as  those  of  the  Sixth  Avenue  line 
right  down  to  South  Ferry. 

This  paragraph  tells  us  that  the  Broad- 
way line  will  be  run,  next  spring,  by  the 
Company  imth  electricity. 


A  OR  ^.Y,  WHICH  ? 

As  the  American  has  no  difficiihy  in 
aspirating  his  A's,  there  is  no  excuse  for  his 
dropping-  the  initial  Ji  in  polysyllabic  words, 
though  the  h  does  not  stand  under  the 
accent.  The  truth  is,  however,  that  most 
Americans  that  use  an  before  these  //'s  are 
not  aware  that,  when  they  do  so,  the  Ji 
should  be  dropped  in  the  utterance,  whicli 
to  that  extent  is  to  Cockneyize  the  lan- 
guage. It's  a  question  of  euphony,  nothing 
more;  in  strictness,  grammar  has  nothing 
to  do  with  it. 

A  historical,  a  heroic,  a  habitual,  is 
ofifensive  to  nobody;  whereas  an  historical, 
an  heroic,  an  habitual,  is  offensive  to  many. 
And  then  a  is  American,  you  know! 

Schuck,  who  is  of  powerful  physique,  has  an 
hallucination  that  he  is  still  at  the  top  of  the 
ladder  on  which  he  was  injured. 

A. 


A    OR  AN,    WHICH?  2OI 

"  Since  then  the  Congress  gatherings,"  he 
said,  "  had  shown  that  a  race  accused  of  money 
grabbing  could  rise  to  an  heroic  measure." 

A.  

This  lack  of  German  patriotism  and  of  ag- 
gressiveness in  employing  the  many  superior 
qualities  and  acquirements  of  the  Germans  is  an 
hereditary  weakness. 

A. 


That  purpose  the  author  endeavors  to  carry 
out  in  an  historical  introduction  and  in  the  last 
four  of  his  nine  chapters. 

A. 

"  He  had,"  he  said,  "  all  his  long  life  been  an 
habitual  drinker  of  strong  liquors." 

A.  

He  indulged  in  an  harangue  that  for  violence 
I  never  have  heard  equalled. 

A. 


MISCELLANEOUS 

He  left  Fort  Resolution  for  Great  Bear  Lake 
in  April,  hauling  his  canoes  by  dog  teams  over 
the  ice  of  Slave  Lake  to  its  outlet. 


The  building  will  be  as  high  as  the  law  allows. 
It  will  be  lighted  with  electricity  and  heated  ^3; 
steam. 

With. 


Another  authority  averred:  "Henry  George 
had  little  influence;  he  frightened  us  by  the  con- 
fiscatory features  of  his  plan." 

With. 


Sir  Ernest  Satow,  the  British  Minister,  is  suf- 
fering zvith  [from]  pleurisy.  While  his  condi- 
tion is  serious  it  is  not  believed  to  be  dangerous. 


There  is  no  improvement  in  the  condition  of 
General  Gaselee.  the  British  commander,  who  is 
suffering  ivith  [from]  pneumonia. 
202 


M ISC  ELL  A  NE  0  US 


203 


Osgood  Field,  who  died  in  Paris  on  Thursday 
after  a  month's  illness  with  [of]  pneumonia  and 
complications,  was  a  New  Yorker  by  birth,  but 
had  lived  abroad  for  many  years. 

Perhaps  no  word  in  the  language  is 
oftener  misused  than  hy.  We  often  see  it 
where  zvith  is  the  proper  preposition. 
Theatres  are  cooled  in  summer  with  ice, 
heated  in  winter  zmth  steam,  and  hghted  at 
all  times  either  ivith  gas  or  electricity,  yet 
their  advertisements  often  tell  us  that  they 
are  cooled  hy  ice  and  so  on.  They  are 
cooled  hy  the  management — the  agent — 
ivith  ice — the  means.  We  never  light  our 
houses  hy  candles,  cool  our  wine  hy  ice,  or 
sweeten  our  coffee  hy  sugar. 

Commonly,  it  is  not  dif^cult  to  decide 
what  preposition  to  use,  but  sometimes  the 
most  learned  are  in  doubt.  Indeed,  the 
English  language  offers  no  greater  diffi- 
culty than  the  proper  use  of  the  preposi- 
tions. It  is  the  last  thing  the  foreigner 
learns.  

But  the  cruelty  of  the  treatment  accorded  new 
cadets  of  late  years  is  spread  on  the  records  of 
the  court  by  the  admissions  of  many  cadets. 
Fourth-class  men  have  been  exercised  to  fatigue. 


204 


SOAfE   ILL-USED   IVORDS 


exhaustion,     fainting,     and     convulsions. — Nczv 
York  Sun. 

'J'lie  word  accord  is  here  used  in  a  sense 
directly  opposed  to  its  accepted  meaning, 
which  is.  To  condescend  to  grant,  to  vouch- 
safe.    We  accord  only  good. 


Whereupon  a  most  affectionate  and  cordial 
welcome  was  accorded  the  Baroness,  and  she  was 
invited  to  pass  a  long  period  with  them. 


Prepositions  frequently,  and  sometimes 
other  words,  should  be  repeated  where  they 
are  not. 

I  must  especially  refer  to  Captain  McCalla,  of 
the  United  States  Navy,  who  was  of  the  greatest 
value  to  me  and  [to]  all  concerned.  He  was 
slightly  wounded  in  three  places,  and  well  merits 
recognition. 

Never  before  in  the  politics  of  this  country 
or  [of]  any  other  [country]  have  advocates  of 
any  political  party  seeking  national  control  under- 
taken to  commend  it  to  favor  by  arguing  that  its 
triumph  would  be  innocuous. 


The  above  figures  are  sufficient  assurance  to 
me  and  [to]  many  others  that  the  workingman 
knows  which  side  his  bread  is  buttered  on. 


MISCELLANEOUS  205 

As  a  rule,  the  money  in  institutions  for  sav- 
ings in  this  or  [in]  any  other  country  is  the  con- 
crete result  of  the  toil  and  self-sacrifice  of  the 
poor  and  of  those  who  [that]  are  only  moderately 
well-to-do. 

Separating  to,  the  sign  of  the  infinitive, 
from  its  verb  is  a  thing  to  be  avoided. 

All  Europe,  inimical  to  England,  is  drawing 
its  own  conclusions  from  the  fact  that  fifteen  or 
at  most  twenty  thousand  Boer  soldiers  have  been 
able  to  so  long  resist  [so  long  to  resist]  the  com- 
bined military  resources  of  the  empire. 


The  circumstances  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Pear- 
son, who  died  in  official  harness,  were  to  some 
extent  an  excuse,  but  far  from  a  justification,  for 
the  precedent  which  [that]  the  placing  of  his 
bust  established — a  precedent  ivhich  [that]  it  is 
better  now  to  promptly  ovcrthroiu  [promptly  to 
overthrow]  than  to  further  strengthen  [further  to 
strengthen] . — Home  Journal. 


For  no  one  would  [should]  we  expect  to  more 
clearly  [more  clearly  to]  voice  the  sentiments  of 
the  Cleveland  Democracy,  save  it  be  Cleveland 
himself,  than  Mr.  Olney. 


To  really  love  [really  to  love]  the  conversion, 
welfare,  and  salvation  of  never-dying  souls  is  to 
faithfully  and  persistently  tell  [faithfully  and  per- 


2o6  SOME  ILL-USED    WORDS 

sistently  to  tell]  them  not  only  of  the  wondrous 
love  of  God,  but  it  is  also  to  fully  [fully  to]  in- 
doctrinate them  respecting  hell. — The  Rev.  Sill- 
vian  Blagdon. 

It  would  seem  that  willi  the  Reverend 
Mr.  Blagdon.  the  matter  is  everything,  the 
manner  nothing:. 


Both  IMr.  Piatt  and  Mr.  Berri  believe  that 
Mr.  Woodruff  should  reconsider  his  decision  not 
to  again  [again  to]  be  the  candidate  for  Lieu- 
tenant Governor. 


But  I  know  that  few  things  could  happen  to 
so  seriously  and,  in  some  cases,  so  disastrously 
[to]  affect  the  men  and  women  of  this  country 
who  [that]  have  been  able  to  save  enough  money 
to  open  accounts  in  the  savings  banks  as  the  elec- 
tion of  William  J.  Bryan. 

Here  we  have  no  fewer  than  eight  words 
between  the  sign  of  the  infinitive  and  its 
verl). 

We  have  here  an  example  of  a  nauseous 
exudation  of  the  vanity  of  the  player  folk 
that  occasionally  gets  into  print. 

The  leading  part  of  Timmendorf  will  be 
created  by  the  leading  comedian  of  the  Irving 
Place  Theatre,  Mr.  Gustav  von  Seyffertitz. 


MISCELLANEOUS  207 

If  Herr  von  Seyffertitz  is  the  "'  creator  " 
of  Timmendorf,  what  is  the  author  of  the 
play  of  which  Timmendorf  is  a  part?  Com- 
monly, very  little  discretion  is  allowed  these 
"creators"  of  parts;  they  must,  as  a  rule, 
play  as  author  and  stage-manager  direct. 
The  Dramatic  Mirror  never  uses  create  as 
it  is  used  in  the  sentence  above;  it  uses 
originate,  which,  however,  is  not  very  much 
better,  since  there  is  little  difference  in  the 
signification  of  the  two  words.  Until  re- 
cently, an  actor  that  was  the  first  to  play 
a  part  was  said  to  be  The  original  so  and  so. 
Forrest,  for  example,  was  said  to  be  the 
original  Jack  Cade;  he  was  never  spoken  of 
as  having  created  or  as  having  originated 
Jack  Cade.  To  express  the  thought  abso- 
lutely, we  should  have  to  use  the  locution, 
The  first  to  play. 

To  use  either  in  the  sense  of  eacii  is  little 
better  than  an  affectation. 

Two  other  pages  marched  on  either  [each] 
side  of  him,  and  each  held  by  the  bridle  a  valu- 
able charger. 

The  fishermen  live  during  the  season  on  small 
vessels  or  immense  scows  fitted  with  a  cabin  at 


2o8  SOME  ILL-USED   WORDS 

either  |  each  |  cinl  if  their  camp  is  near  a  swampy 
shore. 


Ahiiost  every  trade  has  its  own  street,  the 
shops  on  either  [each]  side  being  devoted  to 
shoe-making  or  harness-making,  or  crockery-mak- 
ing, in  all  their  different  branches. 


The  mob  was  strung  out  along  on  either 
[each]  side,  shouting,  cursing,  and  every  little 
while  making  a  rush  at  the  Governor's  company. 


Snow  is  piled  up  so  high  on  either  [each] 
side  of  the  walks  that  one  can  not  see  persons 
walking  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street. 


The  patriarch  of  the  pack  is  a  dog  nine  years 
old,  who  [that]  has  helped  to  kill  over  200  moun- 
tain lions. 

These  lions,  so-called,  of  California  and 
the  Northwest,  like  the  cougar,  the  puma, 
the  catamount,  and  the  painter — a  corrup- 
tion of  panther — are  panthers.  They  might, 
very  properly,  be  called  the  American  leop- 
ard, like  which  they  are,  except  in  color. 
They  and  the  leopard  are  tree-climbers, 
which  the  lion  and  the  tiger  are  not.  There 
is  nothing  leonine  about  them,  except  that 
they,  like  the  lion,  are  of  the  cat  family. 


M ISC  ELLA  NEO  US 


209 


Indeed,  it  would  not  be  surprising  if  a  mob 
were  to  attempt  a  rescue.  If  forty  murderers  re- 
main unhung  [unhanged],  why  should  a  new 
murderer  be  a  victim? 

He  that  is  lynched  is  "  hung  by  the 
neck";  he  that  is  executed  judicially  is 
"  hanged  by  the  neck." 


"  Well,  you  had  better  keep  out  of  the  way 
of  each  other,"  said  Magistrate  Hogan.  "  I  shall 
discharge  the  prisoner  this  time,  but  my  advice 
to  him  is  that  he  leave  [let]  his  wife  alone  in 
the  future." 

But,  as  a  rule,  actresses  have  left  [let]  man- 
agement alone  in  this  country;  and  few  women 
not  actresses  have  undertaken  the  task. 

This  use  of  Icavx;  is  indefensible. 


Lincoln  had  been  practising  law  on  one  side 
of  the  Wabash  River  and  Thompson  on  the  other 
and  they  had  many  mutual  [common]  friends. 
— Chicago  Record. 

Mutual  implies  reciprocity  of  sentiment, 
sentiment  received  and  returned.  Jones 
and  Smith  have  a  mutual  aversion — they 
dislike  each  other — or  they  are  mutually  de- 
pendent— i.  e.,  they  depend  on  each  other. 
14 


2IO  SOME  ILL-USED   ITOA'DS 

Jones  and  Smith  have  a  coDiiiioii  accjnaint- 
ance  in  the  person  Brown.  Jones  and  Smith 
found  two  of  their  common  friends  in  the 
audience.  Common  enmities  often  cement 
friendship.  

The  jealousy  of  England,  on  the  part  of  both 
France  and  Germany,  is  so  bitter  that  the  two 
nations  have  almost  forgotten  that  the  river 
Rhine  exists.  Their  common  hatred  of  the  island 
kingdom  is  inspired  by  the  circumstance. — New 
York  Sun. 

The  careless  writer  would  be  quite  sure 
to  use  mutual  instead  of  common  in  a  sen- 
tence such  as  we  have  here,  yet  mutual 
would  be  iiidefensible. 


A  mutual  [common]  friend  of  the  married 
pair  stops  the  elopement  and  saves  the  merely 
foolish  woman  from  becoming  criminal. 


Yet  the  actress  tuho  [that],  out  of  character, 
ought  to  sit  for  her  picture  most  often  [oftenest] 
with  unadorned  head,  insists  most  often  [often- 
est] upon  wearing  for  portraiture  a  hat  or  [a] 
bonnet  that  destroys  the  future  value  of  her 
picture.  

The  common  origin  of  such  pieces  is  often 
demonstrated  by  analysis  or  by  general   appear- 


M ISC  ELL  A  NEOUS  2 1 1 

ance,  but  more  often    [oftener],  perhaps,  it   re- 
mains in  doubt. 


Never  smoke  upon  [in]  a  crowded  street,  in 
public  carriages,  or  in  any  other  place  where  it 
may  be  offensive  at  the  time  or  afterward. — Hozv 
to  Behave. 

We  live  in  a  street,  meet  people  in  a 
street  and  do  things  in  a  street,  and  not  on 
or  upon  a  street.  The  man,  however,  that 
smokes  in  the  street  would  be  likely  to  in- 
sist that  on  the  street  is  good  enough  Eng- 
lish for  him.  This  is  doubly  true  of  the 
man  that  smokes  a  pipe  in  the  street.  No 
man  can  smoke  a  pipe  in  the  street  and  have 
the  appearance  of  being  other  than  a  vulgar 
fellow.  He  that  does  it  descends — in  his 
manners — to  the  level  of  the  groom  and  the 
hackman. 


A  knot  of  people  can  always  be  found  on  [in] 
Broadway  looking  up  at  the  banner  and  studying 
its  inscriptions. 


The  presence  of  the  Yale  students  was  made 
conspicuous  by  the  appearance  of  hazing  parties 
and  their  victims  on  [in]  the  principal  streets  of 
the  city  to-night. 


2  I  2 


SOME  ILL-USED   WORDS 


The  locution  "  on  the  street  "  has  a  sip^- 
nification  in  l^igland  that  deters  every  one 
from  using  it  in  the  sense  of  "  in  the  street." 


The  author  of  The  Gods,  Some  Mortals, 
and  Lord  W'ickenham  never  by  any  chance, 
it  would  seem,  gets  the  little  word  only  in 
the  right  place.     Examples: 

His  eyes  only  directed  their  gaze  [only]  on  the 
finest  feature  of  each  face,  his  ears  only  caught 
[only]  the  happiest  remarks,  his  heart  only 
thrilled  [only]  at  the  noble  motive  in  every  action. 

Beauty  is  only  given  [only]  to  few. 

Only,  when  used  as  an  adjective,  is  more 
frequently  misplaced  than  any  other  word 
in  the  language. 

Unhappily,  they  only  persevered  in  this  ex- 
cellent resolve  for  [only]  a  few  days.  Within  a 
week  their  abhorrence  of  the  bottle  had  disap- 
peared, and  they  were  drinking  with  a  zest  that 
comes  of  temporary  privation. 

The  right-placing  of  only  is  commonly  a 
very  simple  matter. 


The  word  other  is  frequently  wanting. 

Probably  more  women  have  fallen  in  love  with 
Jane  Eyre's  Rochester  than  with  any  [other]  man 
within  the  pages  of  a  book. 


M ISC  ELL  A  NEO  US 


213 


When  he  returned  to  the  United  States  in  the 
autumn  of  1863  he  was  at  the  height  of  his  career. 
He  was  then  more  loved  and  honored  than  any 
[other]  man  of  his  day. 


Here's  a  genuine  romantic  actor  for  you ! 
One  who  [that]  really  appreciates  the  value  of 
lines  and  reads  them  with  more  intelligence  than 
any  [other]  actor  on  the  American  boards  to-day. 


The  Sun  has  shown  up  the  tricky  document 
as  no  [other]  paper  could  do.  Let  us  have  a 
truly  American  canal  or  none. 


Salisbury  and  Bayard.  They  congratulate 
one  another  [each  other]  upon  the  signing  of  the 
arbitration  treaty. — Headline  New  York  Sun. 

One  another  is  properly  used  only  when 
it  is  a  question  of  more  than  two.  The 
headline  man  of  the  Sun  has  long  been  a 
bit  careless. 


He  may  also  define  how  far  he  and  his  wife 
are  to  mutually  [mutually  to]  support  one  another 
[each  other]  in  cases  where  assistance  is  required. 


There  was  a  time  when  the  speakers  at  public 
dinners  were  supposed  to  show  off.  Now  they 
devote  their  attention  to  making  a  show  of  each 
other  [one  another]. 


214 


SOME  ILL-USED   WORDS 


The  expression  i\n  dc  siccic  is  supposed  to  sum 
up  in  itself  a  number  of  peculiarities  of  the  time. 
This  is  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  is  perpetually 
[continually]  used  in  a  loose  and  reckless  way. 
— Nczv  York  Sun. 

Perpetual  means  never  ceasing,  continu- 
ing without  intermission,  which  is  not  the 
thought  the  writer  intended  to  express. 
Occurring  with  interruptions  is  expressed 

by  coiifimially. 

The  preparations  for  the  monster  Bryan  meet- 
ing, when  all  records  of  attendance  will  be  broken 
if  Tammany  obeys  orders,  are  inspired  by  Mr. 
Croker.  His  teeming  brain  is  never  still,  he  is 
perpetually  [continually]  on  the  go. 


The  members  of  the  gang  with  zvhieh  Barrett 
has  zi'orked  are  four  crooks  known  to  the  police 
as  George  Willard,  "  Dan "  Algin,  "  Billy " 
Burlce,  and  "  Micky  "  Gleeson. 

Simpler  and  more  idiomatic,  lience  l:)et- 
ter,  thus:  That  Barrett  has  worked  with. 


The  despotism  under  which  this  country  is  suf- 
fering is  worse  than  confinement  in  a  penitentiary. 

The  despotism  that  this  country  is  suf- 
fering under;  or,  simply,  The  despotism 
this  country  is  suffering  under. 


MISCELLA  NEO  US  2 1  5 

This  reminds  one  of  the  Hamlet  line, 
"  There  is  nothing  either  good  or  bad  but 
thinking  makes  it  so." 

It  is  a  mistake  to  think  that  neither  a 
sentence  nor  a  clause  of  a  sentence  ever 
should  be  ended  with  a  preposition. 


Never  mix  the  languages,  if  you  can 
avoid  it.  One  language  at  a  time.  Per  is 
Latin. 

The  rent  of  rooms  in  the  college  buildings 
ranges  from  $15  to  $80  per  [a  or  the]  year,  and 
board  is  procurable  in  the  college  hall  for  $2.75 
per  [a  or  the]  week. 

Before  the  freeze,  when  the  yield  was  5,000,- 
000  boxes,  they  sold  at  50  cents  per  [a  or  the] 
box,  but  this  year  the  average  price  per  [a  or  the] 

box  is  $2. 

A  dealer  in  this  city  who  [that]  bought  coal 
in  Amboy  recently  finds  to-day  that  he  can  pur- 
chase [buy]  the  same  only  at  an  advance  of  $1 
per  [a  or  the]  ton.  A  man  who  [that]  bought 
four  consignments  of  coal  from  a  dealer  recently 
received  yesterday  an  offer  of  re-purchase  at  an 
advance  of  50  cents  per  [a  or  the]  ton,  the  dealer 
saying  that  he  zvould  [should]  soon  be  able  to 
dispose  of  the  coal  for  $1  a  ton  more. 


2i6  SOME  ILL-USED   IVORDS 

The  presence  of  the  word  f^itrcJiasc  l)c- 
trays  the  tyro.  The  use  of  the  instead  of  a 
is  not  common,  but  the  one  is  quite  as  cor- 
rect as  the  other. 


When  apples  are  plenty  [plentiful]  and  rea- 
sonable in  price  as  they  are  this  season. — New 
York  Sun. 

Dr.  Campbell,  in  his  Philosophy  of  Rhet- 
oric, says:  "Plenty  [a  noun]  for  plentiful 
[an  adjective]  appears  to  me  so  gross  a  vul- 
garism that  I  should  not  have  thought  it 
worthy  of  a  place  here  if  I  had  not  some- 
times found  it  in  works  of  considerable 
merit."  The  error  is  more  common  in 
America  than  in  England. 


The  masculine  roles  in  plays  predominate 
largely.  Of  comely,  intelligent,  and  tolerably 
facile  actresses  the  supply  is  far  in  excess  of  the 
demand.  Heroes  are  scarce.  Heroines  are  plenty 
[plentiful]. 


Where  the  worn  coins  come  from  is  not 
known,  but  the  fact  that  they  are  so  plenty 
[plentiful]  has  led  some  persons  to  believe  that 
they  are  purchased  by  weight  somewhere. 


M ISC  ELL  A  NEO  US 


217 


A  special  word  must  be  recorded  in  favor  of 
Mr.  Watts's  rendition  [rendering]  of  the  poetry. 
— Neiv  York  Home  Journal. 

We  have  authority  for  using  rendition  as 
it  is  used  in  this  example,  yet  this  use  of  the 
word  does  not  find  favor  with  our  most 
careful  writers.  They  use  the  word  only  in 
the  sense  of  yielding  possession,  surrender, 
thus:  They  remained  till  the  rendition  of  the 
fortress. 

Let  him  confess,  publicly,  over  [under]  his 
signature,  the  truth  that  the  $262,000,000  worth 
of  bonds. — New  York  Sun. 

"  Given  under  my  hand  and  seal  "  means 
under  the  guarantee  of  my  signature  and 
seal.  The  position  of  the  signature  on  the 
paper  has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  We  write 
under  a  date  though  the  date  be  placed,  as 
it  often  is,  at  the  bottom  of  the  sheet. 


Joseph  H.  Manley,  chairman  of  the  Repub- 
lican State  Committee,  over  his  signature  to- 
night, issued  the  following. 

Under. 

Ex-President  Cleveland  has  spoken  at  last,  and 
in  a  most  emphatic  way.    He  is  opposed  to  Bryan 


2i8  SO.UE  ILL-USED   IVOA'DS 

and   Bryanism.     He  to-day   authorized   over  his 
signature  the  pubHcation  of  his  views. 

Under. 


That  way  is  to  issue  to  the  Democracy  of  the 
United  States  an  address,  over  the  signatures  of 
the  Democratic  National  Committee. 

Under. 


Here  is  a  common  error — an  error  of 
omission.  The  preposition  should  have 
been  repeated. 

The  chrysanthemum  seems  to  have  recovered 
from  the  partial  disfavor  into  which  it  fell  [it  fell 
into]  last  year,  and  to  be  once  more  flourishing 
in  popular  fashion.  There  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs 
of  flowers  as  well  as  [of]  men. 


Transpire  is  frequently  used  in  the  sense 
of  to  occur;  to  happen;  to  come  to  pass; 
whereas  it  should  be  used  only  in  the  sense 
of  to  leak  out;  to  become  known.  Here  is 
a  good  example  of  the  correct  use  of  the 
word : 

"  Do  angels  ever  come  back  and  pay  the 
money  they  owe  ?  "  she  asked.  It  transpired  that 
this  particular  angel  owed  the  child  $5. 


MISCELLA  NEO  US 


219 


Reliable  information  about  the  real  extent  of 
the  plague  in  Bombay  and  the  vicinity  is  lacking. 
— New  York  Sun. 

We  commonly  see  its  vicinity,  but  ihc 
vicinity  is  equally  correct.  Supply  the  el- 
liptical words  and  we  have,  "  In  Bombay 
and  in  the  vicinity  of  Bombay." 


M.  Leroy  Beaulieu  is  sanguine  enough  to 
anticipate  that  this  alliance  would  not  remain 
purely  economical. 

Here  is  a  use  of  anticipate  that  should  be 
cast  in  brass  and  kept  as  a  dictional  curi- 
osity. Predict  would  probably  have  served 
the  writer's  purpose;  but  very  likely  in  his 
judgment,  predict  was  not  fine  enough. 


Alvord,  the  notorious  bank  robber,  pleaded 
guilty  yesterday.  It  is  curious  to  note  the  ag- 
grieved air  adopted  by  the  prisoner.  You  would 
think  that  it  was  a  case  of  the  culprit  [culprit's] 
being  more  sinned  against  than  sinning.  It 
shows  that  when  one  is  a  criminal  it  is  well  to 
be  a  big  one  [criminal]. — New  York  Evening 
Si  in. 

We  do  not  adopt  airs,  we  assume  them. 
Neither    word    is    necessary.      "  The    ag- 


220  SOME  ILL-USED   WORDS 

{grieved    air   of   the    prisoner  '"    would    suf- 
fice. 

The  close  student  of  the  life  of  Samuel  Rich- 
ardson does  not  think  of  him  as  a  novelist  alone 
[only].  He  was  a  business  man  who  had  a  con- 
siderable eye  for  material  enterprises.  This  fact  is 
recalled  by  the  disappearance  of  an  [a]  historic 
house  of  his,  the  buildinj^  in  Salisbury  Square, 
London,  which  he  built  for  himself  in  1754. 

We  could  not  say.  The  student  does  not 
think  of  him  alone  as  a  novelist.  Alone  and 
only,  we  see,  are  not  interchansfeable. 


In  an  interview  in  the  Pittsburg  Dispatch  of 
yesterday  morning,  Mr.  Carnegie  said,  in  sub- 
stance, that  the  real  reason  for  the  Carnegie 
Company  [Company's]  taking  up  the  making  of 
steel  pipe  zvas  [is]  because  it  wanted  to.  He  said 
that  the  reason  it  had  [has]  been  decided  to  have 
the  plant  at  Conneaut  ?vas  [is]  because  the  rail- 
roads running  into  Pittsburg  had  [have]  been 
charging  altogether  too  high  freight  rates.  The 
only  way  to  get  rid  of  the  railroads  and  their 
rates,  Mr.  Carnegie  said,  was  [is]  for  his  com- 
pany to  take  to  water. 


The  Columbia  oarsmen  begin  the  year  in  ex- 
cellent financial  [pecuniary  or  monetary]  condi- 
tion.    If  the  universitv  shows  the  same  sort  of 


M  ISC  ELLA  NEO  US  221 

improvement    on    the    water    that    it    displayed 
[showed]  on  the  football  field,  all  will  be  well. 


It  was  fortunate  for  us  that  nothing  happened 
to  him  in  the  circumstances. 

Otiite  correct,  but  not  very  common. 
The  French  always  write  in  the  circum- 
stances. 

Balance  is  often  improperly  used  in  the 
sense  of  rest  or  remainder.  Not  the  balance 
of  the  stock,  but  the  rest  or  the  remainder  of 
the  stock.  The  word  means,  when  properly 
used,  the  excess  of  one  thing  over  another,  as 
the  difference  between  the  debits  and  the 
credits. 

The  balance  of  the  officers  of  the  university 
were  either  doubtful,  non-committal,  or  their 
views  could  not  be  ascertained. 

The  rest. 

Shades  of  my  grandmother !  Perhaps  they 
would  take  me !  As  though  I  were  an  outcast, 
whose  faults  might  be.  forgiven  if  I  promised  to 
be  good ! 

As  if.  The  locution  "  as  though  "  is 
very  common,  but  it  never  says  what  the 
writer  really  intends  to  say. 


222  SOME  ILL-USED   WORDS 

Their  object  seems  to  be  to  try  and  bring 
about  an  awakening  among  the  younger  people 
of  India. 

Not  try  and,  hut  try  io  bring-. 


We  follow  a  negative  with  so,  not  witli  as:. 

However  good  Alderman  Bridges's  poetry 
may  be,  it  is  not  half  as  [so]  interesting  or  pic- 
turesque as  his  prose. 


There  is  no  train  in  England  as  [so]  luxurious 
as  the  Pennsylvania  Limited  and  none  as  [so]  fast 
as  the  Empire  State  Express.  As  regards  the  ad- 
vantage in  speed,  it  may  be  said  that  the  hauls 
in  the  United  States  are  longer,  distances  between 
stations  are  greater,  and  the  tracks  not  as  [so] 
crowded. 

Use  the  yerb  in  the  infinitive,  when  that 
form  is  permissible. 

It  looks  as  if  a  great  many  of  Governor 
Odell's  views  would  [will]  be  embodied  in  legis- 
lation. Many  statesmen  have  ideas,  but  few  have 
the  happiness  of  seeing  them  take  a  concrete 
shape. 

To  see. 

Clauses  are  often  much  misplaced.  Here 
is  an  example:  The  queen-mother  had  ex- 


MISCELLANEO  US 


223 


hausted  the  treasures  Sully  had  amassed  in 
bribes  to  tJie  princes.  Not  so.  The  queen- 
mother  had  exhausted,  /;/  bribes  to  the 
princes,  the  treasures  amassed  by  Sully. 


Look  to  your  clauses,  or  you  may  some 
day  unwittingly  advertise  for  "  a  coachman 
to  look  after  a  pair  of  horses  of  a  religious 
turn  of  mind."  Or  you  may  advertise  "  a 
splendid  gray  horse,  calculated  for  a  charger, 
or  would  carry  a  lady  with  a  switch  tail." 


"  Son-in-law  of  mine,  too,"  groaned  the  old 
gentleman.  "  As  bright  a  young  fellow  as  I  ever 
knew  [have  known].  I  loved  him  as  though  [if] 
he  were  [had  been]  my  own  flesh  and  blood." 

"  You  always  [have]  told  me  that  he  was  [is] 
a  veritable  Napoleon  of  finance." 

"And  so  he  is,"  and  the  old  gentleman  made- 
[an]  attempt  to  laugh.  "  And  I  [have]  encour- 
aged him  in  it.  I  must  admit  that  I  [have]  lit- 
erally drummed  it  into  him  that  business  was  [is] 
business  and  that  sentiment,  friendship,  even  re- 
lationship, had  [have]  to  be  put  aside  when  it 
came  [comes]  to  business." 

"  But  what  has  he  done  ?    Nothing  criminal  ?  " 

"  Taken  me  at  my  word,  the  world  would  say. 
I'm  going  to  retire.  I'm  out,  frozen  out.  You 
know  the  factory  I  have  my  biggest  investment 


224 


SOAfE  ILL-USED   JVORDS 


"  Certainly.  It  is  coining  money,  and  your 
salary  as  president  is  $20,000." 

Here  the  old  gentleman  groaned  again. 

"  1  took  a  vacation.  What  more  natural  than 
that  my  son-in-law  should  vote  my  stock?  I 
gave  him  authority  to  do  so  [vote  it].  He  elected 
himself  president,  chose  his  own  board  of  di- 
rectors, and  increased  the  salary  of  his  position 
[the  president]  $5,000  per  annum  [a  year].  I'm 
simply  turned  out  to  pasture.  My,  what  a  boy  !  " 
— Detroit  Free  Press. 


We  all  know  what  tipping  is.  It  is  a  vile, 
foreign  practice  which  [that]  has  increased,  is 
increasing,  and  ought  to  be  diminished.  It  de- 
stroys the  self-respect  of  him  who  gives  and  him 
who  takes.  It  stamps  the  one  as  a  coward  and 
the  other  as  a  sort  of  blackmailer. 

It  blesseth  him  tJiat  gives  and  him  that 
takes. — Shakespeare. 


The  subject  is  one  of  such  tremendous  im- 
portance to  Americans  that  the  fullest  considera- 
tion will  unquestionably  be  given  to  it  by  busi- 
ness men  who  are  alive  to  the  broad  and  epoch- 
making  developments  of  the  day. — Dry  Goods 
Economist. 

Are  all  business  men  alive,  or  are  only  a 
part  of  them  alive?  There  being  no  comma 
before  zvho,  the  sentence  says  only  a  part. 


MISCELLA  NEO  US  225 

If  there  were  a  comma  before  zvho,  the  sen- 
tence would  say  all  business  men  are  alive, 
in  which  case  we  should  think  the  meaning 
doubtful.  The  meaning,  then,  depends  on 
the  presence  or  the  absence  of  a  comma,  a 
thing  that  often  owes  its  presence  or  its 
absence  to  the  compositor.  If  the  relative 
that  instead  of  who  had  been  used,  the  mean- 
ing would  not  have  depended  on  a  comma, 
though  a  comma  should  never  be  put  be- 
fore a  relative  pronoun  that  introduces  a 
restrictive  clause.  We  sometimes  see  com- 
mas that  properly  stand  before  restrictive 
relatives,  but  they  have  been  put  after  a 
parenthetic  clause  and  not  before  the  rela- 
tive. 

The  religious  communities,  which  have  inci- 
dentally involved  the  common  ownership  of  prop- 
erty and  have  employed  their  members  in  pro- 
duction for  the  benefit  of  a  commonw^ealth,  have 
become  rich. 

This  sentence  says  that  all  religious  com- 
munities are  co-operative,  which  we  know 
is  not  true.  No  comma  and  that  and  the 
sentence  would  say  what  it  was  intended 
to  say. 

15 


226  SOME   ILL-USED   WORDS 

Lizards,  snakes,  and  grasshoppers,  which  live 
in  the  sand,  are  gray  or  brown,  while  their 
brethren  of  the  trees  and  grass  are  green. — New 
York  Sun. 

The  first  ten  words  of  this  sentence  tell 
us  that  all  lizards,  snakes,  and  grasshoppers 
live  in  the  sand;  while  the  remainder  of  the 
sentence  tells  us  that  some  lizards,  snakes, 
and  grasshoppers  live  in  trees  and  grass. 


Not  content  with  destroying  the  Teutonic 
peoples,  which  had  already  settled  on  Roman  soil, 
Justinian  intrigued  with  the  tribes  that  were 
still  north  of  the  Danube,  and  fomented  their 
quarrels. 

This  sentence  begins  by  saying  that  all 
the  Teutonic  peoples  had  settled  on  Roman 
soil,  which  we  see  by  the  last  half  of  the 
sentence  was  not  true. 


The  men  that  have  shown  themselves  as 
masters  of  prose  are  not,  for  the  most  part,  the 
men  that  are  widely  read  and  the  men  that  are 
most  widely  read  owe  many  millions  of  readers 
to  something  else  than  their  mastery  of  prose 
form. — Prof.  Thomas  R.  Price. 

Here  is  a  writer  that  introduces  his  re- 
strictive clauses  with  that. 


WHY   USE   THAT  TO    INTRODUCE 
RESTRICTIVE  CLAUSES? 

Note. — This  essay,  to  be  understood, 
must  be  carefully  studied.  Simply  reading 
it  will  not  suffice. 

Owing  to  the  indiscriminate,  haphazard 
use  of  the  relative  pronouns  that  almost 
universally  prevails,  there  is  never,  proba- 
bly, a  newspaper,  and  rarely  a  book,  printed 
in  the  English  language  in  which  there  are 
not  ambiguous  sentences;  and  yet  this  am- 
biguity can  be  easily  avoided,  as  we  see  if 
we  give  the  subject  a  little  attention. 

So  long  as  we  continue  to  use  the  rela- 
tive pronouns  indiscriminately,  the  mean- 
ing of  all  but  one  of  the  following  six  sen- 
tences— which  are  all  grammatically  and 
idiomatically  correct — and  of  all  like  sen- 
tences, will  be  doubtful: 

I.  These  are  the  master's  rules,  who 
must  be  obeyed. 

227 


228  SOME  ILL-USED    WORDS 

2.  These  are  the  rules  of  the  master,  who 
must  l)e  obeyed. 

3.  These  are  the  rules  of  the  master, 
that  must  be  obeyed. 

4.  These  are  the  rules  of  the  master, 
which  must  be  obeyed. 

5.  These  are  the  master's  rules,  which 
must  be  obeyed. 

6.  These  are  the  master's  rules,  that  must 
be  obeyed. 

Nos.  I  and  2  should  mean  :  These  are 
the  rules  of  the  master,  and  he  must  be 
obeyed  ;  but  they  may  mean  :  These  are 
the  rules  of  a  certain  one  of  several  mas- 
ters, and  this  one  is  the  one  w^e  must 
obey. 

No.  3  may  mean:  Of  the  master's  rules, 
these  are  the  ones  that  must  be  obeyed.  It 
may  also  mean:  Of  several  masters,  these 
are  the  rules  of  the  one  whose  rules  must 
be  obeyed. 

Nos.  4  and  5  may  mean:  These  are  the 
rules  of  the  master,  and  they  must  be 
obeyed;  or  they  may  mean:  Of  the  rules  of 
the  master,  these  are  the  ones  that  must  be 
obeyed. 

That  is  properly  the  restrictk-c  relative 


IVHV  USE   THAT? 


229 


pronoun,  and  ivhich  and  ivho  are  properly 
the  co-ordinating  relative  pronouns.  That, 
when  properly  used,  introduces  something 
without  which  the  antecedent  is  not  fully 
defined,  whereas  which  and  zvho,  when  prop- 
erly used,  introduce  a  nezv  fact  concerning 
the  antecedent. 

Whenever  a  clause  restricts,  limits,  de- 
fines, qualifies  the  antecedent — i.  e.,  when- 
ever it  is  adjectival,  explanatory,  in  its  func- 
tions— it  should  be  introduced  with  the  rela- 
tive pronoun  that,  and  not  with  zvhicJi,  nor 
with  who  or  zvhoni. 

The  use  of  tJiat  solely  to  introduce  re- 
strictive clauses,  and  who  and  zvhich  solely 
to  introduce  co-ordinating  clauses,  avoids 
ambiguities  that  must  occasionally  come  of 
using  the  relative  pronouns  indiscriminate- 
ly. This  clearly  appears  from  the  following 
examples: 

"  I  met  the  watchman  zvho  showed  me 
the  way."  Does  this  mean,  "  I  met  the 
watchman  and  he  showed  me  the  way"? 
or  does  it  mean  that,  of  several  watchmen 
I  met,  the  one  that  on  some  previous  occa- 
sion showed  me  the  way?  It  should  mean 
the  former,  and  it  would  mean  that  and 


>30 


SOME   ILL- USED   IVORDS 


nothing  else,  if  we  discriniinatcd  in  using 
zvho  and  tJuit. 

"  And  fools  zi'lio  came  to  scoff  remained 
to  pray."  Does  the  familiar  line  from  Gold- 
smith mean.  And  the  fools  that  came, 
though  they  came  to  scoff,  remained  to 
pray?  or  does  it  mean  that  some  of  the 
fools  that  came,  came  to  scoff,  and  these 
remained  to  pray?  Probably  the  former  is 
the  meaning;  but  as  the  line  stands,  this, 
no  matter  how  general  the  opinion,  can  be 
only  conjectured,  as  every  one  must  admit 
that  the  meaning  intended  may  be  the  lat- 
ter. If  the  latter  is  the  meaning,  it  is  clear 
that  the  proper  relative  to  use  is  that.  Had, 
however,  Goldsmith  never  used  i^'ho,  except 
to  introduce  co-ordination,  we  should  know 
positively  just  what  he  intended  to  convey. 

"  It  is  requested  that  all  members  of 
Council  ivJw  are  also  members  of  the  Lands 
Committee  will  assemble  in  the  Council 
room."  Does  this  mean  that  all  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Council  are  also  members  of  the 
Lands  Committee,  and  that  they  shall  as- 
semble? or  does  it  mean  that  sncJi  members 
of  Council  as  are  also  members  of  the  Lands 
Committee  shall  assemble? 


WHY  USE   THAT? 


231 


"  The  volume  is  recommended  to  all 
geologists  to  zi'Jwni  the  Secondary  rocks  of 
England  are  a  subject  of  interest."  Is  the 
volume  recommended  to  all  geologists,  or 
to  such  only  as  take  an  interest  in  Secondary 
rocks? 

"  He  had  commuted  the  sentence  of 
the  Circassian  officers  zvJw  had  conspired 
against  Arabi  Bey  and  his  fellow-ministers 
— a  proceeding  which  [that]  naturally  in- 
censed the  so-called  Egyptian  party."  Did 
all  the  Circassian  ofKcers  conspire,  or  only 
a  part  of  them? 

''  On  the  ground  floor  of  the  hotel  there 
are  three  parlors  zvliich  are  never  used." 
Does  this  mean  three  of  the  parlors  on  the 
ground  floor  are  not  used?  or  does  it  mean 
the  three  parlors  on  the  ground  floor  are 
not  used?  The  latter  is  probably  the  mean- 
ing intended,  but  as  there  is  no  comma  after 
parlors,  the  former,  using  the  relatives  in- 
discriminately as  we  do,  is  the  meaning  ex- 
pressed, 

"  Emin  Bey,  the  chief,  who  leaped  the 
wall  on  horseback  and  landed  safely  on  the 
debris  below,  was  afterward  taken  into 
favor."     Here  the  language  and  the  punc- 


232 


SOME   ILL-USED   IVORDS 


tuation  convey  the  impression  that  Emin 
Bey  was  the  sole  chief,  when  in  fact  he  was 
only  one  of  the  many  chiefs  that  were  pres- 
ent on  the  occasion  referred  to.  The 
thought  intended  is  expressed  thus:  "  Emin 
Bey,  the  chief  tliat  leaped  the  wall,  .  .  . 
was  afterward  taken  into  favor." 

"  His  conduct  surprised  his  English 
friends  ivho  had  not  known  him  long." 
Does  this  mean  all  his  English  friends,  or 
only  those  of  them  that  had  not  known  him 
long?  If  the  former  is  the  meaning,  then 
who  is  the  proper  relative  to  use  with  a 
comma;  if  the  latter,  then  that  should  be 
used,  without  a  comma. 

"  Agents  of  the  Turkish  Government  are 
trying  to  close  the  Protestant  schools  in 
Asia  Minor,  zvJiicJi  are  conducted  by  mis- 
sionaries from  the  United  States."  Are  the 
Turks  trying  to  close  all  the  Protestant 
schools  in  Asia  Minor,  or  only  a  part  of 
them?  All.  according  to  this  statement; 
but  that  is  probably  not  what  is  intended,  as 
there  are  doubtless  Protestant  schools  in 
Asia  Minor  that  are  not  conducted  by  mis- 
sionaries from  the  United  States. 

"  The  police  captains  zvho  yesterday  vis- 


PVI/V  USE   THAT? 


233 


ited  the  central  office  to  draw  their  pay,  all 
expressed  their  sympathy,"  etc.  Did  all  the 
police  captains  visit  the  central  office,  or 
only  a  part  of  them? 

"  The  youngest  boy  who  has  learned  to 
dance  is  James."  As  long  as  we  use  who 
for  the  purposes  of  both  restriction  and  co- 
ordination, this  means  either,  "  The  young- 
est boy  is  James,  and  he  has  learned  to 
dance,"  or,  "  Of  the  boys,  the  youngest 
that  has  learned  to  dance  is  James."  If 
the  latter  is  the  meaning,  then  that  should 
have  been  used  ;  if  the  former,  then 
who  is  correctly  used,  but  the  co-ordinate 
clause  should  have  been  isolated  with  com- 
mas. 

Who  and  which  are  the  proper  co-ordinat- 
ing relatives — i.  e.,  the  relatives  to  use  when 
the  antecedent  is  completely  expressed 
without  the  help  of  the  clause  introduced 
with  the  relative.  Thus:  "  The  society  now 
numbers  nearly  twenty  members,  zvho  (==■ 
and  they)  have  given  up  all  family  ties  and 
devoted  themselves  entirely  to  religious 
work."  "  The  choir  consists  of  about  sixty 
men  and  boys,  who  are  surpliced."  "  But 
some  of  their  friends,  who  (=  persons  that) 


234 


SOA/E   ILL-USED   WORDS 


are  wealthy  and  iiillnential  members  of  the 
church,  (lid  not  like  to  ha\c  them  give  up 
their  work  in  Boston,  i^'Jiich  had  been  at- 
tended w^ith  great  results,  and  urged  them 
to  return,  idiicli  they  ha\'e  consented  to  do, 
and  they  will  soon  begin  work  anew  at  the 
old  church,  zcliicli  is  the  property  of  the 
Society  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist." 

Here  are  some  examples  of  the  correct 
use  of  zclio,  cchicJi,  tJiat,  and  wlioin:  "The 
heirs,  zvlio  are  very  numerous,  will  be  pres- 
ent " — i.  e.,  all  the  heirs.  "  The  heirs,  ivho 
have  been  notified,  will  be  present  " — i.  e., 
all  the  heirs.  "  The  heirs  tJiat  have  been 
notified  will  be  present  " — i.  e.,  only  those 
notified.  "  The  heirs,  i^'lwui  I  have  seen, 
will  be  present  " — i.  e.,  all  the  heirs.  "  The 
heirs  that  I  have  seen  will  be  present  " — 
i.  e.,  only  those  seen.  "  I  study  grammar, 
zuhich  I  like  very  much."  "  Give  me  the 
grammar  that  lies  on  the  desk."  "  He 
struck  the  man  zuho  " — i.  e.,  a  certain  man 
— "  had  done  him  no  harm."  "  He  struck 
the  man  tJiat  " — i.  e.,  a  man  of  several  men 
— "  insulted  him."  "  He  struck  the  wrong 
man — the  one  that  had  done  him  no  harm." 
"  Our  house,  zuhich  is  built  of  brick,  is  very 


H^//V  USE   THAT?  235 

warm."  "  The  house  that  is  built  of  brick 
is  the  warmest."  "  The  cat  " — i.  e.,  the 
species — "  ivhich  you  so  dishke  is  a  useful 
animal."  ''  The  cat  " — i.  e.,  the  individual 
— "  that  you  so  dislike  is  a  very  pretty  one." 
"  He  jumped  into  the  water,  zvliich  greatly 
frightened  his  mother."  ''  He  attends  to 
his  own  affairs,  whicJi  is  the  way  to  make 
them  prosper."  "  He  that  attends  to  his 
own  affairs  is  likely  to  see  them  prosper." 
'*  The  man  that  I  saw  is  tall."  "  This  man, 
ivhom  I  know  well,  is  a  good  ploughman." 
"  He  tJiat  lets  the  sun  go  down  on  his 
wrath,"  etc. 

In  the  following  examples  the  errors  in 
the  use  of  the  relatives  are  corrected  in 
brackets:  "  The  rich  despise  those  ivho 
[that]  flatter  too  much,  and  hate  those  who 
[that]  do  not  flatter  at  all."  "  An  am- 
bitious man  zvhom  [that]  you  can  serve  will 
often  aid  you  to  rise,"  etc.  "  He  that  feeds 
many  serveth  few;  he  serveth  all  zvJio  [that] 
dares  be  true."  "  The  curious  inquirer  zvJio 
[that]  sets  himself,"  etc.  "  This  book  has 
been  made  for  those  zvJio  [that]  aim  to 
have,"  etc.  "  The  people  zcJio  [that]  are 
expecting,  under  the  new  code  .  .  .     The 


236 


SOME  ILL-USED   IVORDS 


people  will  not  consent,  under  a  Govern- 
ment zvJiich  [that]  depends  upon  their  will, 
to  adopt  the  Sabbatarian  notions  whicli 
[that]  the  old  Puritans  .  .  .  Yet  there  are 
some  narrow  minds  in  New  York  who 
[that]  still  think  .  .  .  They  have  no  sym- 
pathy with  those  z^'Jio  [that]  would  force 
.  .  .  Then  there  are  the  Jews,  n'ho  do  not 
feel  .  .  ,  and  ivho  claim  the  right  to  work 
or  play  on  Sunday  ,  .  .  The  population 
would  be  sunk  in  gloom,  zvliicJi  w'ould  of 
course,"  etc. 

It  is  necessary,  for  the  proper  under- 
standing of  zvhicJi,  to  advert  to  its  peculiar 
function  of  referring  to  a  whole  clause  as 
the  antecedent:  "  William  ran  along  the  top 
of  the  wall,  zvhich  alarmed  his  mother  very 
much."  The  antecedent  is  obviously  not 
the  noun  "  w-all,"  but  the  fact  expressed 
by  the  entire  clause — "  William  ran,"  etc. 
"  He  by  no  means  wants  sense,  zvJiicJi  only 
serves  to  aggravate  his  former  folly";  name- 
ly, (not  "  sense,"  but)  the  circumstance 
"  that  he  does  not  w-ant  sense."  "  He  is 
neither  overexalted  by  prosperity  nor  too 
much  depressed  by  misfortune,  zvhich  you 
must  allow  marks  a  great  mind."     "  We 


WJIV  USE  THAT? 


237 


have  done  many  things  zcJiicJi  we  ought 
not  to  have  done  "  might  mean  '*  we  ought 
not  to  Jiave  done  many  things  " — that  is,  "  we 
ought  to  have  done  few  things."  That 
would  give  the  exact  sense  intended:  "  We 
have  done  many  things  that  we  ought  not 
to  have  done."  That  is  much  more  fre- 
quently used  instead  of  zvJio  as  a  restrictive 
relative. than  will  be  at  first  supposed.  As 
evidence  of  this  I  offer  a  sentence  that  I 
find  in  a  London  cablegram  to  a  New  York 
newspaper:  "  It  was  he  that  moved  the  ad- 
journment until  Tuesday."  This,  in  my 
judgment,  is  better  and  more  idiomatic 
English  than  it  would  have  been  had  the 
writer  used  zvho  instead  of  tJiat. 

Occasionally,  but  by  no  means  often,  we 
meet  with  a  tJiat  that  should  be  zvhicJi. 
Here  are  two  such  zvhiches: 

Across  the  Straits  of  Fuca  there  is  the  pretty 
English  town  of  Victoria  that  [which]  has  as 
solid  mansions,  etc. 

The  Strait  or  Gulf  of  Georgia,  that  [which] 
separates  Vancouver  Island  from  the  mainland, 
although,  etc. 

There  is  not,  as  some  of  the  unthinking 
seem  to  believe,  any  valid  objection  to  using 


238 


SOME  ILL-USED   WORDS 


two  tihiis  in  iiiiniodiate  succession,  as  in  tlie 
utterance  they  are  widely  dilTerent.  Thus 
usetl,  they  are  not  at  all  disturbing,  not  at 
all  tautopiionic.  Two  successive  tJiats  are 
tauto])honic  to  the  eye  only.  'J^he  demon- 
strative tJiat  always  has  its  full  name  sound, 
while  the  other  that,  be  it  a  conjunction  or 
a  relative,  is  barely  touched;  thus,  "  I  say 
th't  THAT  book  is  old."  "  Where  is  that 
th't  I  gave  you?  "  Indeed,  three  successive 
tliafs  are  not  at  all  disturbing — e.  g.,  "  They, 
therefore,  that  treat  of  these  subjects  more 
boldly,  venture  to  say  th't  that  th't  is  base 
is  the  only  evil." 

Who  is  that  that  dares  to  address  the  court  ? 
— Dickens. 


We  must  next  allude  to  the  cases  where  the 
relative  is  governed  by  a  preposition.  We  can 
use  a  preposition  before  who  (in  the  objective 
case  whom)  and  ivhich,  but  when  the  relative 
is  that  the  preposition  must  be  thrown  to  the 
end  of  the  clause.  Owing  to  an  imperfect  appre- 
ciation of  the  genius  of  our  language,  offence 
was  taken  at  this  usage  by  some  of  our  leading 
writers  at  the  beginning  of  last  century,  and  to 
this  circumstance  we  must  refer  the  disuse  of 
that  as  the  relative  of  restriction. — Bain's  Gram- 
mar. 


1V//V  USE   THAT? 


239 


That  can  not  be  preceded  by  a  preposition, 
and  hence  throws  the  preposition  to  the  end. 
"  This  is  the  rule  that  I  adhere  toJ'  This  is  per- 
fectly good  English,  though  sometimes  unneces- 
sarily avoided. — Abbott's  Hozv  to  Write  Clearly. 


In  every  other  language  the  preposition  is 
almost  constantly  prefixed  to  the  noun  which 
[that]  it  governs;  in  English  it  is  sometimes 
placed  not  only  after  the  noun,  but  at  a  consid- 
erable distance  from  it,  as  in  the  following  ex- 
ample: "  The  infirmary  was,  indeed,  never  so  full 
as  on  this  day,  which  I  was  at  some  loss  to  ac- 
count for."  Here  no  fewer  than  seven  words 
intervene  between  the  relative  which  and  the 
preposition  for  belonging  to  it.  One  would 
imagine,  to  consider  the  matter  abstractly,  that 
this  could  not  fail  in  a  language  like  ours,  which 
admits  so  few  inflections,  to  create  obscurity. 
Yet  this  is  seldom,  if  ever,  the  consequence.  In- 
deed, the  singularity  of  the  idiom  hath  made  some 
critics  condemn  it  absolutely.  That  there  is  noth- 
ing analogous  in  any  known  tongue,  ancient  or 
modern,  hath  appeared  to  them  a  sufficient  reason. 
/  own  it  never  appeared  so  to  me. — Dr.  Camp- 
hell's  Rhetoric. 


The  constant  placing  of  the  preposition 
before  the  relative  tends  to  make  a  writer's 
style  turgid,  ponderous — sometimes,  in  fact, 
almost  unidiomatic.      It  makes  one's  die- 


240 


-SV.1//:    I  LI. -USED    WORDS 


tion  (lilYer  too  widely  from  the  diction 
of  everv-day  life,  which  is  the  diction 
much  the  best  suited  to  many  kinds  of 
composition. 

The  following  examples,  taken  from 
Massinger's  Grand  Duke  of  Florence,  will 
show'  what  was  the  usage  of  the  Elizabethan 
writers: 

For  I  must  use  the  freedom  /  was  born  zvitJi. 


In  that  dumb  rhetoric  zi'hich  you  make  use  of. 


...  if  I  had  been  heir 
Of  all  the  globes  and  sceptres  mankind  bozvs  to. 


.  .  .  the  name  of  friend 
Which  you  are  pleased  to  grace  me  with. 


..  .  .  wilfully  ignorant,  in  my  opinion, 
Of  what  it  did  invite  him  to. 


I  look  to  her  as  on  a  princess 
/  dare  not  be  ambitious  of. 


...  a  duty 
That  I  was  born  with. 


W//y  USE   THAT? 


241 


So  in  Shakespeare,  to  take  an  example 
out  of  many: 

To  have  no  screen  between  the  part  he  played 
And  him  he  played  it  for. 


Why,  there  is  not  a  single  sentence  in  this 
play  that  I  do  not  know  the  meaning  of. — Ad- 
dison. 

Originality  is  a  thing  we  constantly  clamor 
for  and  constantly  quarrel  with. — Carlyle. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  relative, 
when  it  is  the  object,  is  often  omitted. 

"  It  was  not  one  with  zvhicJi  he  could  find 
fault";  better,  "One  he  could  find  fault 
with." 

"  It  will  be  a  joy  to  which  I  have  looked 
forward  with  hope  ";  better,  "  A  joy  that  I 
have  looked  forward  to  with  hope." 

"  You  are  the  first  one  to  zvJwm  I  have 
unburdened  my  mind  ";  better,  "  First  one 
I  have  unburdened  my  mind  to." 

"The  man  to  whom  I  refer";  better, 
"  The  man  I  refer  to." 

"  Don't  whip  with  a  switch  that  has  the 
leaves  on  if  you  want  to  tingle." — Beecher. 
How  much  of  its  idiomatic  terseness  this 
16 


242 


SOME   ILL-USED    WORDS 


sentence  would  lose  if  changed  to,  "  Don't 
whip  with  a  switch  on  z^'liic/i  there  are 
leaves,"  or  on  li'hich  the  leaves  remain,  or 
from  tcliicli  the  leaves  have  not  been  re- 
moved ! 

The  more  thought  one  gives  to  the  mat- 
ter the  more  one  will  be  inclined,  I  think,  to 
discriminate  in  the  use  of  the  relative  pro- 
nouns, and  the  less  one  will  be  opposed  to 
that  construction  that  puts  the  governing 
preposition  at  the  end. — From  the  Verbalist. 


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and  even  lovable  is  not  an  easy  task.  .  .  .  To  have  made 
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ISew  York  life  is  what  Miss  Stuart  has  achieved  in  this 
novel.  And  the  other  characters  reach  a  similar  reality. 
'1  hey  are  individuals  and  not  types,  and,  moreover,  they  are 
not  literary  echoes.  For  a  writer  to  manage  this  assortment 
of  original  characters  with  that  cool  deliberation  which 
keeps  aloof  from  them,  but  remorselessly  pictures  them,  is  a 
proof  of  literary  insight  and  literary  skill.  It  takes  work 
as  well  as  talent.  The  people  of  the  story  are  real,  plausible, 
modern  creatures,  with  the  fads  and  weaknesses  of  to- 
day."—A^.  y.  Life. 

"  The  strength  of  the  book  is  its  entertaining  pictures  of 
human  nature  and  its  shrewd,  incisive  observations  upon 
the  social  problems,  great  and  small,  which  present  them- 
selves in  the  complex  life  of  society  in  the  metropolis. 
Those  who  are  fond  of  dry  wit,  a  subtle  humor,  and  what 
Emerson  calls  'a  philosophy  of  insight  and  not  of  tradition,' 
will  find  '  Averages '  a  novel  to  their  taste.  .  .  .  There  are 
interesting  love  episodes  and  clever,  original  situations.  An 
author  capable  of  such  work  is  to  be  reckoned  with.  She 
has  in  her  the  root  of  the  matter." — A'.  Y.  Mail  and  Express. 

Stonepastures.     i2mo.     Cloth,  75  cents. 

"  The  story  is  strongly  written,  there  being  a  decided 
Bronte  flavor  about  its  style  and  English.  It  is  thoroughly 
interesting  and  extremely  vivid  in  its  portrayal  of  actual 
life." — Boston  Courier. 

D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY,   NEW   YORK. 


MISS  DOUGALUS  BOOKS. 


The  Mormon  Prophet.    i2mo.   cioth,  $1.50. 

"  A  striking  story.  .  .  .  Immensely  interesting  and  diverting,  and  as  a 
romance  it  certainly  has  a  unique  power."— Boston  Herald. 

"In  'The  Mormon  Prophet'  Miss  Lily  Dougall  has  told,  in  strongly 
dramatic  form,  the  story  of  Joseph  Smith  and  of  the  growth  of  the  Church 
of  the  Latter  Day  Saints,  which  has  again  come  prommently  before  the 
public  through  the  election  of  a  polygamist  to  Congress.  .  .  .  Miss 
Dougall  has  handled  her  subject  with  consummate  skill.  .  .  .  She  has 
rightly  seen  that  this  man's  life  contained  splendid  material  for  a  historical 
novel  She  has  taken  no  unwarranted  liberties  with  the  truth,  and  has 
succeeded  in  lurnishing  a  story  whose  scope  broadens  with  each  succeed- 
ing chapter  until  the  end."— jVt^w  York  Mail  and  Express. 

"Mormonism  is  not  ordinarily  regarded  as  capable  of  romantic  treat- 
ment, but  in  the  hands  of  Miss  Dougall  it  has  yielded  results  which  are 
calculated  to  attract  the  general  public  as  well  as  the  student  of  psychol- 
ogy. .  .  .  Miss  Dougall  has  handled  a  difficult  theme  with  conspicuous 
delicacy ;  the  most  sordid  details  of  the  narrative  are  redeemed  by  the 
glamour  of  her  style;  her  analysis  of  the  strangely  mixed  character  of  the 
prophet  is  remarkable  for  its  detachment  and  impartiality,  while  in  Su- 
sannah Halsey  she  has  given  us  a  really  beautiful  study  of  nobly  compas- 
sionate womanhood.  We  certainly  know  of  no  more  illuminative 
commentary  on  the  rise  of  this  extraordinary  sect  than  is  furnished  by 
Miss  Dougall' s  novel." — London  Spectator. 

"  It  is  apparent  on  every  page  that  she  writes  from  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with  the  early  history  of  the  Mormons." — Congressman-elect  Roberts, 
0/  Utah. 

The    Madonna    of  a    Day.     i2mo.    cioth, 

$1.00  ;  paper,  50  cents. 

"  An  entirely  unique  story.  Alive  with  incident  and  related  in  a  fresh 
and  captivating  style." — Philadelphia  Press. 

"  A  novel  that  stands  quite  by  itself,  and  that  in  theme  as  well  as  in 
artistic  merit  should  make  a  very  strong  appeal  to  the  mind  of  a  sympa- 
thetic reader." — Boston  Beacon. 

The    Mermaid.      i2mo.      cioth,   li.oo;    paper,   50 

cents. 

"The  author  of  this  novel  has  the  gift  of  contrivance  and  the  skill  to 
sustain  the  inteiest  of  a  plot  through  all  its  development.  'The  Mermaid' 
is  an  odd  and  interesting  story." — New  York  Times, 

The    Zeit-Geist.      i6mo.     cioth,  75  cents. 

"One  of  the  most  remarkuiblo  novels. "~A^cw  'i'ork  Commercial 
A  dveriiser. 

D.   APPLETON    AND    COMPANY,   NEW   YORK. 


D.   APPLETON    AND    COMPANY'S    PUBLICATIONS. 


u 


XCLE  REMUS.  His  Songs  and  his  Sayings.  By 
Joel  Chandler  Harris.  With  new  Preface  and  Re- 
visions, and  112  Illustrations  by  A.  B.  Frost.  Library 
Edition.  i2mo.  Buckram,  gilt  top,  uncut,  $2.00.  Also, 
Edition  dc  luxe  of  the  above,  limited  to  250  copies,  each 
signed  by  the  author,  with  the  full-page  cuts  mounted  on 
India  paper.     8vo.     White  vellum,  gilt  top,  $10.00. 

"The  old  tales  of  the  plantation  have  never  been  told  as  Mr.  Harris 
has  told  them.  Kach  narrative  is  to  the  poii-t,  and  so  swift  in  its  action 
upon  the  risibilities  of  the  reader  that  one  almost  loses  consciousness  of  the 
printed  page,  and  fancies  it  is  the  voice  of  the  lovable  old  darky  himself 
that  steals  across  the  senses  and  brings  mirth  inextinguishable  as  it  comes; 
.  .  .  and  Mr.  Frost's  drawings  are  so  superlatively  good,  so  inexpressibly 
funny,  that  they  promise  to  make  this  the  standard  edition  of  a  standard 
book." — iWw  Vor/e  'Iribiitie. 

"  An  exquisite  volume,  full  of  good  illustrations,  and  if  there  is  anybody 
in  this  country  who  doesn't  know  Mr.  Harris,  here  is  an  opportunity  to 
make  his  acquaintance  and  have  many  a  good  laugh." — New  1  ork  Herald. 

"There  is  but  one  '  Uncle  Remus,'  and  he  will  never  grow  old.  .  .  . 
It  was  a  happy  thought,  that  of  marrying  the  work  of  Harris  and  Frost."— 
Neiv  J  'ork  Mail  and  E.rpress. 

"  Nobody  could  possibly  have  done  this  work  better  than  Mr.  Frost, 
whose  appreciation  of  negro  life  fitted  him  especially  to  be  the  interpreter 
of  '  Uncle  Remus,'  and  whose  sense  of  the  humor  in  animal  life  makes  these 
drawings  really  illustrations  in  the  fullest  sense.  Mr.  Harris's  well-known 
work  has  become  in  a  sense  a  classic,  and  this  may  be  accepted  as  the 
standard  edition." — Philadelphia  Times. 

"A  book  which  became  a  classic  almost  as  soon  as  it  was  published. 
.  .  .  Mr.  Frost  has  never  done  anything  better  in  the  way  of  illustration, 
if  indeed  he  has  done  anything  as  good.  " — Boston  Advertiser. 

"  We  pity  the  reader  who  has  not  yet  made  the  acquaintance  of  '  Uncle 
Remus' and  his  charming  story.  .  .  .  Mr.  Harris  has  made  a  real  addition 
to  literature  purely  and  strikingly  American,  and  Mr.  Frost  has  aided  in 
fixmg  the  work  indelibly  on  the  consciousness  of  the  American  reader." — 
7'he  Clnirchman. 

"  The  old  fancies  of  the  old  negro,  dear  as  they  may  have  been  to  us 
these  many  years,  seem  to  Rain  new  life  when  they  appear  through  the 
medium  of  Mr.  Frost's  imagination." — New  Yorli  Hovte  yournal. 

"  In  his  own  peculiar  field  '  Uncle  Remus '  has  no  rival.  The  book  has 
become  a  classic,  but  the  latest  edition  is  the  choice  one.  It  is  rarely  given 
to  an  author  to  see  his  work  accompanied  by  pictures  so  closely  in  sympathy 
with  his  text." — San  Francisco  Argonaut. 

"We  say  it  with  the  utmost  faith  that  there  is  not  an  artist  who  works 
in  illustration  that  can  catch  ihe  attitude  and  expression,  the  slyness,  the 
innate  depravity,  the  eye  of  surprise,  obstinacy,  the  hang  of  the  head  or 
the  kick  of  the  heels  of  the  mute  and  the  brute  creation  as  Mr.  Frost  has 
shown  to  us  here." — Baltimore  Sun. 


D.   APPLETON   AND   COMPANY,   NEW  YORK. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIIIRARY 

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